


Masks & Capes

by neyla9



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: M/M, Rating May Change, super hero AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-07
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2018-06-07 01:04:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 59,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6778771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neyla9/pseuds/neyla9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A different take on a Super Hero Au. About a century ago, a new mutation occured that granted some people superpowers from birth. People feared these new creatures, leading the government to enact laws, which led to oppression and prejudice.</p><p>Dipper and his sister are twins born with superpowers. The government found out about, forcing them to change their names and flee to another state. Arriving in the urban city of Gravity Falls, the two need to decide whether to become super heroes and make the world a better place, or just lay low and try to live a normal life. And even if they choose to be heroes, Gravity Falls is under the unwanted protection of a dangerous man called "The Illuminator".</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just a prologue giving some backstory on the au, sorry^^; The story won't really begin until next chapter, but hopefully this will pique your interest

It had started over a hundred years ago; a child had been born with an odd, gem-like protrusion on the back. Doctors had declared the newborn baby to be healthy, but were baffled by the abnormal addition.

As the child grew up, more babies around the world were born with gem-like lumps on their backs, and it soon became clear that each of these children had access to incredible powers. It also turned out that using the gems, they could transform into an alter ego, and as such the protrusions were dubbed “transformation stones”.

Most people reacted with fear and hostility towards these new super-humans, leading many governments to enact laws that they claimed were to protect people, but were in actuality meant to ostracize and oppress these people.

The first law was that children with transformation stones were not allowed to go to school with ordinary kids. At first, this forced parents to either home school said children, until many governments created schools specifically for those children. The idea was that the children would live at those schools, learn how to suppress their powers and live normal lives, and while the schools did provide that, they were also a front for scientists and doctors to experiment on the children and find out more about how they worked. A group of scientists discovered that the transformation stones were some kind of extreme mutation, and thus gave those who bore it the name “Homo Melior”.

The second law came only shortly after the first; it dictated that all Melior people had to be registered as such by their local government, including what abilities they had and what their transformed alter ego looked like.

The third law was that all business owners were within their right to refuse service and give jobs to Meliors.

Unsurprisingly, those laws only fanned the flames and made people more paranoid and scared of Meliors. People demanded to have tests made that could determine if a baby would be Melior, encouraged doctors to find a cure for the mutation, some people even demanded to have a law enacted that prohibited Meliors from having children to further prevent any more Meliors.

Following this, many parents with Melior children began hiding said fact, teaching their kids to be ashamed about that part of themselves. So many Meliors grew up hiding from the government, and if they were found out, they would cut all ties, take a new name and move somewhere else.

Naturally, this oppression and secrecy took a toll on most, if not all Meliors, many of whom didn’t want to hide their powers. Some Meliors decided to take the first step to show people that they should not fear them, and became heroes, protecting others and saving lives. Others, caught up in the injustice and cruelty, became villains; bend on inflicting as much pain on the world as the world had on them. But most Meliors still only wished to live a normal, peaceful life, with a stable job and a pleasant home.

The influx of heroes and villains caused a great split between people; some started seeing the abuse and oppression Meliors had to suffer, some started believing that Meliors could do wonderful things with their powers, some were more convinced than ever that Meliors were horrible monsters that didn’t deserve equal treatment, and a few saw opportunities for power…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry everyone, I'm still working on the epilogue of Trustworthy Au, I've just a little bit of writer's block... I don't know how long it'll last, but I'll try my best to have it out as soon as possible.
> 
> Since I already decided to start on another story, now that Trustworthy Au's main storyline is over, I thought, why not start now? This is an au I've wanted to write for a while, it's mostly inspired by The Incredibles and Miraculous Ladybug. The Incredibles for the idea of some people being born with powers, and the government trying to force said people to hide said powers, and Miraculous Ladybug for the idea of transformation, but mostly for the idea of a lovesquare involving two people. Yes, both Dipper and Bill will have a civilian identity and a hero identity, with the hero identities being crimefighter partners, and civilian identities being colleagues. Bill (AKA The Illuminator) falls in love with Dipper, while Dipper (AKA Pine Tree) falls in love with The Illuminator. If you want more info about this au, you can find it here (just remove the spaces): neyla9 . tumblr . com / post / 139256549842 / billdip-superhero-au


	2. Episode 1: He Saved Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper and his sister, two Meliors recently discovered by the public, are forced to relocate. They start a new life in the urban city, Gravity Falls, which is under the unwanted protection of another Melior, who goes by the name "The Illuminator".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, new chapter! Hope you like it:3

Dipper was gazing out of the window, watching the landscapes glide by as the bus drove him and his sister away, leaving their old lives and identities behind. It was the first time they had been forced to relocate, but it would definitely not be the last, that much Dipper was sure of.

When Dipper was young, he had always thought that dark blue lump on his back was normal, after all, his sister had one too, hers was just a hot pink. But when he was four, he had spotted his dad exiting the shower and seen that there was no gem on his back. That had led the boy, as well as his sister, to ask their parents what those stones were, and their parents had reluctantly explained to them that those were called “transformation stones”, and that the twins had them because they were Meliors.

Dipper had heard adults, including his parents, talk about Meliors before, but only in a bad context; people always said that Meliors were dangerous, that there was something wrong with them, he had even heard some people say that if their kids had been born Melior, they would had killed them.

So of course Dipper, being the young naïve child that he was, asked his parents if he was bad because he was Melior. His parents had assured that of course he wasn’t, he and his sister would always be their wonderful children no matter what.

When Dipper and his sister entered school, in order to keep the secret of them being Melior, their parents had given them notes to give to their teachers, excusing them from physical activities like gym and swimming classes.

The first time Dipper used his powers, he was six; every student in his class had gotten a brown ceramic pot with dirt and a flower seed in it. They were told to water the plant and make it grow as good as they could. While Dipper took care of his flower, he began talking to it, having heard that talking to a plant helped it grow. He even ended up reading the plant a story about a tiny pine tree that grew up and became a beautiful Christmas tree, but then the story got very sad, and little Dipper hadn’t wanted to make his plant sad, so he didn’t read anymore of the story. The next day, the plant had already begun growing, only it wasn’t a flower bud that sprung out from the dirt, it was a pine sapling. When Dipper showed his teacher this, the teacher was baffled, but conceited that she must have accidental planted a pine seed in Dipper’s pot instead of a flower. Dipper went on to plant the sapling in his backyard, where it within two weeks had grown to a giant pine tree.

By the age of eight, both Dipper and his sister had fully discovered their powers; Dipper realized that he could not only grow plants, he could also control and even create them! His advanced intellect also seemed to hint at some kind super intelligence, after all, how many eight year olds could handle advanced calculus?

Meanwhile, his sister had first discovered her ability to talk to animals, not all animals however, only rather intelligent ones, like crows, dogs, cats, dolphins, and to her eternal joy, pigs. Later, she found out she was able to create and shoot balls of light out her hands, with the projectiles exploding on impact like fireworks.

When Dipper turned twelve, he had gotten more curious about Meliors and decided to search about it online. Most of the results were facebook posts talking about how terrible Meliors were, that they weren’t safe to have around normal people, that they were a time bomb waiting to go off, or pseudo-scientific articles talking about how Meliors had something wrong with their brains, making them more violent and aggressive than normal people, and that it simply would be for the best to not have Meliors around normal people.

But then there was a couple of news articles, talking about Meliors becoming heroes, protecting others and making the world a better place, although there were even more news articles about Meliors becoming thieves, murderers and terrorists.

Dipper did find one video that he liked; the video featured a young teenage girl, not much older than Dipper, who introduced herself by saying that she was a Melior, she wasn’t particular violent or angry, she loved animals and wanted to be a veterinarian when she grew up. She then used her transformation stone; a bright flash occurred, and when it faded away, the girl’s appearance had changed. Her hair was now darker and shorter, she was taller and more muscular, and her eyes were a tad bit smaller and a different color. The girl went on to explain that she was able to conjure and control water, as well as demonstrated said abilities.

Dipper had felt his spirit lift seeing that, and had decided to check the comments, hoping to find more Meliors sharing their own powers and dreams. While he found a couple of people saying nice things and encouraging the Melior girl in the video, most comments either insulted the girl or called the entire video fake.

Now, at the age of twenty-one, Oren “Dipper” Baum and Maple Baum, had been forced to leave their family and home; Maple had gotten one of her many sweaters stuck on a branch in public, which had ridden said sweater up far enough to reveal her transformation stone to the public. People had stopped and stared, a lot of them taking out their phones to take pictures of the girl. Dipper had managed to get his sister back home where the two immediately began packing their essentials, including the cash they had saved in case something like this ever happened, and the two twins got on the first bus they found, and only got off once they were in the next state.

They had stopped at a small diner and talked about what to do next. Maple brought up the only relatives they had that they knew were Meliors, their great-uncles Stanford and Stanley Pines. In their young days, the Pines twins had been a crime fighting duo, in an urban city called Gravity Falls, known as “Sixer” and “Mr. Mystery”, until they both mysteriously disappeared thirty years ago. Maple suggested that the two of them traveled to Gravity Falls to start their new lives there, as the city was far enough away from their old home, and being such a big city, it would be easier for them to blend in. Dipper had added the need for new names, and the twins came up with Mabus and Mabel Pines, in honor of their superhero uncles.

Dipper was shaken out of his thoughts when his sister gently placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Dipper,” she said. “We’re here.”

The twins grabbed their bags and got off the bus, along with three other passengers. Dipper pulled the city map out of his pocket and looked for the nearest street sign. After they figured out where they were, they set off towards their new home.

Dipper was relieved that the MRO (Melior Relocation Organization), an organization made up of Meliors dedicated to help other Meliors start anew when they were discovered, had agreed to help him and Mabel. The organization had found a small two-story building on the eastside of Gravity Falls; the building was rundown, but it had working heat and plumbing, and would do just fine for the twins.

 

It only took the twins a couple of days to get settled at their new home. After having been told about their new apartment by the MRO, the twins had discussed how they would earn money. Mabel had suggested opening a flower shop since Dipper’s abilities allowed them to get any plants they needed. Dipper had given some mild protests to that, as his ability to grow flowers was somewhat of an embarrassment to the young man, but he didn’t have any better suggestions.

Within the week, their flower shop was opened on the first-floor, while the twins made their home on the second-floor. An ad for their new store had been placed in a newspaper and flyers had been sent out, so hopefully it would only be a matter of time before they received some customers.

Dipper was walking into the shop, yawning and holding two cups of coffee. Mabel was sitting by the cash register with her laptop on her lap. Dipper placed his sister’s mug, the homemade pink one with butterflies and unicorns painted on it, while he took a sip from his own mug, the bitter taste sliding down his thirsty throat.

“What are you reading?” Dipper asked.

“Well, I had started wondering if, since our great-uncles aren’t protecting this city anymore, some other hero had stepped up to the plate,” she responded, her forehead frowning.

“Did you find anything?”

“Kinda,” Mabel shrugged. “I mean, someone is stopping criminals and villains, but I wouldn’t exactly call them a hero… He goes by the name “The Illuminator”. I searched his name on the Hero/Villain wikia-“

“The what?” Dipper coughed a bit, having gotten his coffee down the wrong pipe.

“Oh, it’s like a fansite dedicated to documenting all heroes and villains,” Mabel explained and showed him the page; the site was a dark, minty-green, the current article featuring a big block of text, and to the right side, a picture of a tall, slender, humanoid creature, with a very dark grey or perhaps black skin, a mane of long, wild and thick yellow hair, one piercing, golden eye with cat-like pupil and black sclera, the other eye was just an empty, black socket, long, thin limbs, monstrous hands with appendages that resembled claws more than fingers, huge, bare and clawed feet, dressed in what looked like a black undershirt, a golden jacket with coattails and a high collar, along with black dress pants, only the clothes seemed somewhat worn and torn.

“Who is that?” Dipper asked.

“That would be Gravity Falls’ new ‘protector’,” Mabel remarked sarcastically.

“He’s… Melior, right?” Dipper blinked a couple of times, attempting to make sure he was seeing the picture right. “I mean, I know our ‘forms usually look different from our normal looks, but he barely looks like a human.”

“That’s not all that’s weird about him,” Mabel added and scrolled further down the entry. “Wanna hear how many powers he’s got? Pyromancy, Sleep Touch, Dream Walking, Memory Reading, Telepathy, Invisibility, and Mind Wiping.”

“Okay, I don’t know what half of those things are,” Dipper shook his head. “But how is it possible for one Melior to possess that many powers? Most Meliors only have one or two, maybe three.”

“Maybe he’s like an even more advanced form of Melior?” Mabel suggested, shrugging her shoulders. “Anyway, the guy’s bad news; that Mind Wiping thing? Yeah, apparently he uses that on all the criminals he catches; it completely erases their minds, leaving them in a near-comatose state.”

“That’s awful…” Dipper remarked softly.

“I know. That’s why I thought it was about time that Gravity Falls got reminded what real heroes are like!” Mabel set her laptop aside and got up from her chair, before darting up the stairs and coming back down carrying two articles of clothing. “I made these for us!” she explained excitedly and gave Dipper one of the clothing items; it was a light blue suit with a white patch on the chest area, inside of which was a blue pine tree sigil. “Your costume also has white boots and gloves, a blue domino mask,” Mabel continued.

“Mabel, I don’t think we should go out and play heroes right now,” Dipper gave her the suit back. “Look, maybe someday in a year or maybe a couple of months, but not right now. We just moved here; I think we should lay low for a while.”

“Alright,” Mabel let out a dejected sigh. “You’ve got a point. I just- Maybe if we went out there and helped others, we could show people that there’s no reason to fear Meliors.”

“I know, Mabel,” Dipper nodded, a melancholy look on his face. “But I think it’s gonna take more than two Meliors to change that many people’s minds…”

 

By evening, right as they were about to close the shop, the business phone rang, and Mabel took it.

“Hello, Pines’ Plants,” she greeted the caller. “Uhuh… Hey, Dipper!” she called out to her brother, who was in what they called the work room, aka the room where Dipper grew the flowers. “Do we have any blue roses?”

Dipper placed a ceramic pot filled with dirt on a table and used his powers to instantly grow a blue rosebush. “How many does the customer want?”

“A dozen, no thorns!” Mabel replied after a brief pause. “He wants them delivered as quickly as possible!”

“Alright, I’m on it!” Dipper responded, cutting out twelve roses and removing the thorns, before packing them in paper. He stepped out of the work room, carrying the bouquet.

“Here’s the address,” Mabel gave a small piece of paper.

“That’s close by,” Dipper remarked. “I’ll be back in half an hour, at the latest.”

“Sounds good! Have a safe trip,” Mabel waved to her brother before continuing to close up shop.

 

It ended up taking Dipper a little more time, than he had first thought, reaching the address. The customer was happy; apparently, it was his wife’s and his anniversary, and he had always given her blue roses as a gift, but his usual flower shop had been unable to find him any in time.

Dipper took the money and began walking back home. He looked at his phone and realized he was gonna miss his favorite show if he didn’t hurry up. Deciding to take a shortcut, the young man walked into an alleyway that would cut his travel considerably. However, it soon became clear that someone was following him. Dipper tried to ignore his growing sense of uneasiness as the stranger came closer and closer, until Dipper was thrown against the nearest wall and held there by a strong hand, the stranger’s other hand holding a switchblade knife near Dipper’s throat.

“Alright, I don’t want any trouble,” his assailant whispered. “Just give me any money and valuables you got, and I won’t hurt you.”

Dipper debated his options for a second; he could either give the robber the money which he and his sister needed, along with his other possessions, with no way to get them back, or he could take a chance and use his powers. However, the guy had a clear look on his face, and also seemed of sound mind. If Dipper used his powers, he and Mabel would need to get relocated again.

Before Dipper had a chance to make his decision, a figure swooped down from the rooftop and grabbed the robber by the throat, making him drop his knife, and slammed him into a wall. Dipper looked at his savior, and there was no doubt about it; that was The Illuminator, holding the robber to the wall, and glaring at the criminal with a hate filled gaze.

“Why did you attack him?” The Illuminator asked the robber. His voice sounded calm, but carried an underlying rage and intensity, reminding Dipper of the proverb “The Silence Before The Storm”.

“I- I didn’t!” the robber insisted, gazing with fear at the Melior in front of him.

“Don’t lie to me…” The Illuminator smirked. “Even if I hadn’t witnessed it, I can clearly see it in your memories…” the hand around the robber’s throat tightened for just a moment before loosening again. “You’re only making things worse for yourself by lying…”

“I…” the robber gasped. “I’ve been wanting t-to propose to my girlfriend… But I can’t afford a ring…”

“You disgust me,” The Illuminator tightened his hand once more, this time not stopping as the robber began gasping for air. “There are people here who nearly starve to death every day, but you think that a piece of useless metal is worth threatening someone’s life over? Heh, I’ll be doing your girlfriend a favor…” The Illuminator’s other hand started glowing white. The robber began thrashing, trying his damndest to get away from the glowing hand which was getting closer and closer to him.

“Stop!” Dipper shouted, finally recovered from his shock. The Illuminator paused, lowered the glowing hand, and turned around to look at Dipper.

“… You’re still here?” the Melior simply asked.

“Please, don’t do that,” Dipper pleaded with the hero. “There’s no harm done. Please, he doesn’t deserve to have his mind wiped.”

The Illuminator looked at Dipper with a difficult to read expression. He turned back to the robber and his hand began to glow again, this time a golden color. He placed a glowing finger on the robber’s forehead, and the criminal seemingly fell unconscious. The Illuminator let go of him and walked slowly towards Dipper.

“Don’t worry; he’s just asleep,” The Illuminator reassured him. “What’s your name?”

“It’s… It’s Dipper,” the young man whispered. As The Illuminator got closer, Dipper realized just how large the Melior was; Dipper barely reached his neck, and The Illuminator’s hands were as big as Dipper’s head.

“That’s an odd name,” the hero remarked with a small smile.

“It’s a nickname,” Dipper explained. “Umm, thanks for saving me from that robber, and not turning him completely comatose,” Dipper added awkwardly, biting his lower lip.

“You’re welcome,” The Illuminator responded. “Is your home close to here?”

“Well, it’s a short walk,” Dipper said. “Just on the other side of this alleyway.”

“I don’t think you should walk through this alleyway. You’re bound to meet more criminals, and not just robbers at that.”

“But I need to get home as quickly as possible,” Dipper protested.

“Then, would you like me to escort you?” the hero offered.

“Escort me?” Dipper repeated, a small blush appearing on his cheeks at the suggestion.

“Yes,” The Illuminator smiled again. “After all, I’d be a poor hero if I just let you get attacked again.”

“A-alright,” Dipper stuttered and swallowed audibly, only to give out a small shriek when The Illuminator picked him up and into one arm, climbing back up on the rooftop, and proceeded to carry Dipper back home at a rather high speed. In the meantime, Dipper realized just how warm and soft the other Melior’s body was, how strong and safe that arm felt around him. For a moment, Dipper rested his head on The Illuminator’s chest, letting out a small happy sigh.

All too soon, they were back in Dipper’s neighborhood.

“Do you want me to drop you off here?” The Illuminator asked.

“Uh, well, you don’t have to,” Dipper tried to sound nonchalant. “I mean, I wouldn’t mind if you could take me straight to my door…”

“Okay,” the hero nodded.

“It’s that two-story building, with the big sign saying: ‘Pines’ Plants’,” Dipper explained while pointing in the direction of his home.

It barely took any time before they arrived, The Illuminator placing Dipper down on the sidewalk gently.

“Thanks again,” Dipper smiled at the Melior.

“Anytime,” The Illuminator responded before leaving.

Dipper covered his face in embarrassment and walked inside.

“Oh, there you are, Dipper,” Mabel greeted him. “I was beginning to get worried. Did something go wrong?”

“No, not exactly,” Dipper sighed and went to his room, his show completely forgotten.

As he lied down on his bed, and stared at the ceiling, only one thought rang through his mind: he had gotten a crush on The Illuminator.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed it:3 Next chapter, we'll see Dipper meeting Bill, as well as taking on the identity of a superhero to catch The Illuminator's eye
> 
> Please leave a comment, if you want to:3


	3. Episode 2: Second Meetings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper and Mabel meets Bill, and Dipper meets The Illuminator again, this time as a hero.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, this is a short one. Oh well, hopefully you'll still like it:3

Dipper got up early the next morning, before Mabel even, to get the shop ready for the day. He hoped the work would keep his thoughts away from the Melior he met last night. Following through with this crush could only lead to disaster, Dipper was sure of that. Besides, it wasn’t like he would ever even meet The Illuminator again.

Dipper stood by the cash register, bended down to reach the lowest shelf on the bookcase behind the cash register. He was putting some ceramic pots in order, when he heard the jingling of the bell above the door, signaling that someone had entered the store.

“One moment,” Dipper said to the newly arrived customer, trying to finish his work quickly.

“Oh please, take all the time you need~” the customer, male by the sound of the voice, chimed at Dipper. “Although, I would like to know if someone with a butt that cute, has a matching face~”

Dipper blushed and spun around, an angry glare on his face. “Excuse me!?” he said indignantly.

“Oh, looks like you do~” the guy smirked, leaning over the counter; he had messy, honey blond hair that covered one of his eyes, the other eye was an amber color. His skin was a bronze shade, and he wore a somewhat baggy, green shirt, and black leather pants and boots. “Can I have a name to go along with that face, or shall I just call you ‘cutie’?”

Dipper’s blush worsened. “W-what?! Okay, look, what do you want?”

“Hmm, straight to the point, huh?” the guy leaned back from the counter and placed a hand on his hip. “I’m here for the job opening.”

“What?” Dipper repeated, shaking his head slightly. “I think you might be in the wrong place; we don’t currently have an available position.”

“Then why is there a sign in the window saying ‘help wanted’?” the guy asked and pointed to one of the windows facing the street, and true to his words, there was a small sign popped up.

Dipper walked over to the window, picked up the sign, and it did read in bright red letters “Help Wanted”.

“Mabel!” Dipper called his sister, who soon enough came downstairs, wearing her kitty nightgown.

“Wha’ s’it?” she yawned, still sounding half asleep.

“Why is there a help wanted sign in the window?”

“Oh, I placed it there yesterday after you left,” Mabel replied, sounding slightly more awake now. She first now spotted the strange man in the store. “Hello,” she greeted the man with a small smile. “Are you here for the application?”

“Yeah, I’ve been looking for a job,” the guy replied. Dipper noticed that the guy didn’t seem to have any interest in flirting with Mabel, despite the fact that she was currently wearing a nightgown.

“Alright, we just need a pair of extra hands around the store,” Mabel explained. “You see, our store does delivery, and so far my brother has been the one making the deliveries, but he’s also the one taking care of our plants; he has a very green thumb.”

“I bet,” the guy threw a somewhat sultry glance at Dipper before returning his attention to Mabel.

“So, we need someone who can take care of deliveries for him, so that he can stay and care for the plants,” Mabel finished.

“I guess I can do,” the guy shrugged. “I mean, I have a motorcycle, so deliveries aren’t a problem.”

“Uh, we’re asking you to delivery flowers,” Dipper interjected. “You know, flowers; generally fragile, as in, cannot handle motorcycles?”

“Don’t worry your pretty, little head about that,” the guy smirked at Dipper. “I have big, metal container with bag straps attached to it; it’s perfect for transporting your fragile flowers… Besides, I’m very careful when riding. Maybe someday I can show you. You just need to promise me to hold real tight so you don’t fall off.”

“No thanks,” Dipper huffed.

“Okay, we’ll just need your name now,” Mabel interrupted, seemingly trying to prevent things from getting more awkward.

“Bill Cipher,” the guy responded.

“That’s an odd name,” Dipper remarked.

“I guess it is,” Bill shrugged. “But I still haven’t gotten your name…”

“Urgh, Dipper Pines,” Dipper groaned at the man.

“That’s not exactly a normal name either,” Bill argued.

“It’s a nickname,” Dipper crossed his arms over his chest defensively before marching over to the work room. “I’ll go see to the flowers now.”

 

Much to Dipper’s annoyance, Bill actually did a good job. And with someone else to focus on the deliveries, Dipper was left to focus on the plants. In the back of the work room, in the biggest pot he could find, he had started to grow a pine tree as well. The tree was only a small sapling for the moment, Dipper could use his powers to rapidly grow the plant, but he preferred to let it mature at its own pace. He couldn’t wait for the tree to sprout its needles, for scent of fresh pine to fill the room.

It was about a week after Bill was hired; the other man had an irritating habit of disturbing Dipper between deliveries. Dipper would be forced to listen to the onslaught of Bill’s attempts at flirting, if that was even what it was; Dipper was convinced that Bill was just trying to get a rise out of him.

The work day was coming to a close, and Dipper left the work room to find Mabel and Bill sitting by the cash register and talking.

“Oh, hey Dip-Dop,” Mabel greeted him. “We got a couple of last minute deliveries, so I’m about to send Bill out.”

“Alright,” Dipper shrugged. “Do we have the needed flowers, or…?” he trailed off purposely, and Mabel responded with a nod. “Good. I’ll be in my room.”

“Do you want me to join you later, my little porcupine?” Bill gave Dipper a lazy smirk.

“No, no, I do not,” Dipper said indignantly as he walked to the stairs. “And why did you just call me a porcupine?!”

“Because you try so hard to seem all prickly and unapproachable, but in reality, you’re just a little cutie,” Bill’s smirk widened while Dipper’s cheeks grew redder.

Dipper huffed and stormed up the stairs, hearing the laughter of both Mabel and Bill behind him. It seemed like the two were becoming friends.

As he entered his room, he turned on the TV, turned it to a random channel, and jumped into bed. He just wanted to turn his brain off for a while and not think about anything, but it seemed like some twist of fate thought otherwise.

After the current program ended, a local news report started. A young woman appeared on screen to tell that a hostage situation was going on in the Gravity Falls’ Museum of Natural History.

“We are now meeting with our field reporter, live on the scene,” the news anchor said, and the screen split to show the news anchor on the left side, and a male reporter on the right. Behind the reporter, Dipper could see the museum, along with cop cars, police tape, and officers trying to get the situation under control.

“Currently, the police are doing all they can,” the reporter spoke into a microphone, trying to sound as professional as possible. “The hostages seem to be around twenty, but we haven’t received an exact number from the captors. The criminals have asked for a ten million dollar ransom, as well as safe transportation out of the state. The police have yet to get into contact with a hostage situation expert, and there is a clear fear that if something doesn’t happen soon, the captors might kill one of the hostages.”

Dipper turned the TV off at that. His eyes drew his closet; the suit that Mabel had made for him was hidden in a secret compartment inside the closet. He shook his head; surely The Illuminator would arrive in time to save the hostages, right? But why hadn’t he shown up yet?

The first thought that went into Dipper’s mind was that maybe The Illuminator thought the situation was beneath him, but Dipper quickly shook that thought out of his head; if The Illuminator wasn’t beneath saving him from a small robbery, surely he wouldn’t turn his nose up at a hostage situation.

So, maybe The Illuminator was busy with something else? Gravity Falls was a big city, and there was bound to be crime occurring all over. But if The Illuminator couldn’t do anything to stop the hostage situation… maybe someone else should.

 

Dipper was sprinting across the rooftop, wearing his full costume and in his transformed form; his ‘form was taller, more muscular, with a slightly darker skin tone, his usually auburn hair was longer and a more chestnut brown color, his eyes a clear, almost glowing, sapphire, his face more angular, and his voice slightly deeper.

When Dipper arrived at the museum, it seemed like The Illuminator still hadn’t shown up, at least, not as far as Dipper could see. He stayed out of sight of the police and onlookers, searching for a discreet way inside the building, finally settling on a bathroom window.

Dipper broke the window open, waited a couple of minutes to make sure no one had heard it, before he crawled into the museum through it. He sneaked out of the bathroom and into the main hall, hiding behind a pillar in the shadows to observe the situation; there seemed to be about a dozen captors, all dressed in dark colors with ski masks hiding their faces, some of them were carrying hand guns, three of them machine guns, and Dipper could see at least one handling a shotgun. The hostages, Dipper counted that there was twenty-six of them, were gathered near the back of the hall, their arms and legs tied up, wearing blindfolds, sitting on their knees, with two captors guarding them.

“I told you, we need to show them that we’re serious!” there was a group of three talking somewhat close to Dipper, allowing the Melior to pick up on their conversation. “Look, we need to show them, that we aren’t afraid to start killing the hostages, if we want our demands to be met.”

“I don’t think killing our bargaining chips is the smartest idea,” one of the other captors told the first one. “If we start killing them unprovoked, they might think we’re just gonna kill ‘em anyway.”

“No, no, that’s not what we need to worry about,” the third one interjected. “If we kill one of the hostages, it will definitely scare the police, and that can both be a good or bad thing; it might make them more likely to give us the money and transportation, but it might also make them react unpredictable. Let’s not forget, they have the superior weaponry here; if they come in, guns blazing, we’re done for. Yes, we’ll be able to kill a couple of the hostages first, but we won’t get what we want.”

Dipper didn’t like the way the criminals’ conversation was going; at the current moment, the majority of them might not be willing to start murdering the hostages, but that could change very fast. Dipper had to figure out a plan of action; he couldn’t just grow a giant plant out of the floor, well, if he had more time and was in a more secure location, he could, but to grow it, the plant needed to break the floor, which would make a big racket and might scare the captors enough to make them act irrationally, plus if Dipper was focused on growing and controlling the plant, it would leave him open to attack if he was spotted.

Luckily for Dipper, the museum had plenty of plants in the main hall; one that especially stood out to him was the coral vine growing on the central pillar. He focused his eyes and energy on a palm tree, on the first floor of the two story hallway; he made the palm tree’s roots grow rapidly, causing them to break the pot, which in turn created a crackling sound of the pot being broken, followed by a loud crash as the palm tree fell to the floor.

“What was that?” one of the captors exclaimed at the sudden sound. All the criminals turned their heads toward the first floor.

“Alright, seems like we still have a couple of museum guests running free,” another one added. He pointed at three of the captors. “You, go up there and catch anyone you see!”

The three criminals begin running up the stairs, away from the rest of the group.

The sudden sound seemed to leave the rest of the captors on edge; some of them were glancing around everywhere, and one of them held their gun close. Dipper could practically see the wheels in their heads spinning and their worry grow; the captors were now too preoccupied with their own thoughts and fears, whereas before they were bored and itching for a fight. As long as Dipper proceeded slowly, he would be able to fulfill his plan.

Dipper began making the coral vine grow and migrate up the pillar to the ceiling. Then, the three captors from before returned to the hall; they reported to someone, whom Dipper supposed was their leader, that they looked everywhere, but couldn’t find anyone. It was in that moment, that Dipper formed one braid of vines for each criminal, and sent them down to grab the captors. The move was to sudden and unexpected for the criminals to react in time, as they were each tied up from head to toe and hung from the ceiling.

Dipper, once sure that each criminal was captured, rushed over to the hostages and began freeing them. At first there was a unanimous look of joy and gratitude on each hostage face, until it became clear that Dipper was Melior. Some kept their look of thankfulness, the few kids in the group looked at Dipper with surprise and amazement, but the majority looked at him with disgust and anger.

“Uh, I hope you’re all alright,” Dipper said, somewhat awkwardly as he was pretty new to this type of situation, and had never done well with public speaking. “I’ll go get the police outside, and tell them to get the criminals now.”

He walked through the main entrance, the sight greeting him was dozens of cops aiming their guns at him.

“Don’t worry!” Dipper shouted to the police officers, holding his hands in the air to show that he wasn’t armed. “The criminals are secured, and all the hostages are safe!”

“You’re under arrest!” one of the officers yelled.

“What?” Dipper gave them a dumbfounded look. “For what?”

“For interfering with a hostage situation!” the officer responded.

“I saved the hostages!” Dipper argued. “I’m not expecting showers of thanks, but arresting me for doing the right thing seems kind of backwards.”

“We’re taking you back to the station,” the officer continued and stepped forward, holding a pair of handcuffs. “If you resist arrest, we’ll add that to your charges-“

The officer was interrupted when a figure jumped down from the roof, landing between her and Dipper; it was The Illuminator. He didn’t say anything; he merely grabbed Dipper and escaped with him, the sound of guns firing at them in the distance.

Once they had gotten sufficiently far away from the police, The Illuminator stopped and let go of Dipper.

“What was that!?” The bigger Melior was glaring at Dipper.

“I… I was just trying to help,” Dipper responded.

“I don’t need your help,” The Illuminator snarled.

“Well, excuse me, but you weren’t there!” Dipper argued. “What was I supposed to do?! Wait and hope that you wouldn’t show up too late?”

“This city is my turf!” The Illuminator growled.

“This isn’t some kind of turf war!” Dipper insisted. “It’s not like I’m trying to put you of business! I’m just trying to make the world a better place.”

“No, you just want to play a hero,” The Illuminator argued, but had seemingly calmed down. “What if something back there went wrong? One little slip up from you, and those hostages could have been dead.”

“I…” Dipper paused, knowing the other Melior had a point. “I just wanted to do the right thing.”

“… Are you gonna stop trying to play a hero?” The Illuminator asked him in an exasperated tone.

“No,” Dipper responded instantaneously.

“Well, then I guess for the sake of the people in Gravity Falls, and to make sure you don’t die, I’d better keep an eye out for you,” The Illuminator sighed, a faint smile on his lips.

“Are… Are you talking about teaming up?” Dipper inquired, trying to keep his excitement at bay.

“If that’s what you wanna call it,” The Illuminator shrugged. “What do you call yourself?”

“Huh?” Dipper blinked a couple of times at the other Melior.

“Don’t tell me you haven’t even created an alias.”

“Uh, alright, I won’t.”

“Well, I’m gonna need to call you something,” The Illuminator studied Dipper for a moment before his eyes settled on the pine tree sigil on the smaller Melior’s chest. “I’ll call you ‘Pine Tree’.”

“I guess I can go with that,” Dipper shrugged before turning around. “Well, it’s been fun, I guess, but I have to go home now!”

“Try to stay out of trouble until we meet again!” The Illuminator replied.

“No promises!” Dipper shouted before jumping down from the rooftop, landing hard, but safely on the ground. He ran into an alleyway, made sure he was alone, and detransformed before returning home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I had to figure out another nickname for Bill to call Dipper, since I have a hard imagining Bill calling Dipper by name, but I can't have him call him Pine Tree, 'cause that's Dipper's alter ego's name, so I settled on Porcupine. Yes, Bill will call Dipper Porcupine in this fic.
> 
> In the next chapter, The Illuminator will start Pine Tree's training, but the training has to be cut short when a villain with the ability to control electricity attacks the city!


	4. Episode 3: Training Cut Short

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper and Mabel talk about Dipper's latest activities as a hero, while The Illuminator and Pine Tree begins their training.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, another short chapter. I can already tell most, if not all, of these chapters are only gonna be a couple of thousands words long. Oh well. Hope you like it:3

To Dipper’s annoyance, but not surprise, he ended up oversleeping the morning after his time as Pine Tree. Barely awake, he got dressed and went downstairs to find Bill and Mabel in a conversation, as usual.

“I don’t know,” Bill said in response to a question Mabel must have asked him. “I mean, I think he’s a new hero; I haven’t seen anyone wear a costume with that sigil.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty special,” Mabel nodded and noticed Dipper standing in the door. Her face got a little tenser, at the sight of her brother. “Oh, Dip-Dop!” she greeted him with a somewhat tight smile. “Me and Bill were talking about what happened yesterday.”

“What happened?” Dipper asked, trying his best to sound nonchalant.

“You didn’t hear, Porcupine?” Bill smirked at Dipper. “There was a hostage situation at the museum, and some unknown Melior showed up and saved the day.”

“Uh, I went to bed early yesterday, so I must have missed that,” Dipper scratched the back of his head and glanced over at his sister.

“Yeah, something tells me you weren’t able to watch the news about that,” Mabel mumbled.

“So, uh, there’s a new hero now?” Dipper asked Bill, trying to ignore his sister glaring at him.

“Apparently,” Bill shrugged. “Seems like he has plant powers or something; when the police took the criminals into custody, they were all tied up in vines! I think this might be the first Melior I’ve ever seen with power to control plants.”

“Really?” Dipper inquired. “Not even The Illuminator has those? I mean, he has so many powers it wouldn’t surprise.”

“If The Illuminator has them, I’ve never seen him use them,” Bill began to laugh a little. “But why would he? In an urban environment like ours, controlling plants is pretty useless.”

“What?” Dipper looked at the other man.

“All I’m saying is, if the museum didn’t have those plant decorations, that Melior wouldn’t exactly have been able to do a thing,” Bill smiled as he explained.

“So you’re telling me that plants are useless?” Dipper glared.

“Oh, I didn’t mean your plants of course,” Bill said, lacing every word with an abundance of sweetness. “I would never insult your profession, my fragile flower~”

The conversation was interrupted when the phone rang.

“Hello, Pines’ Plants,” Mabel greeted as she picked up the phone. “Uhuh. You’re gonna pick it up, or do you want it…? Okay, delivered. Have a nice day, sir,” she wrote down an address and put the phone back down before addressing the two young men. “Alright, I just got an order for a dozen yellow hyacinths.”

“I’ll check the workroom,” Dipper announced, quickly ducking into the workroom and growing the needed flowers, as well as wrapping them properly, before walking out and handing the bouquet to Bill.

“Don’t I get a goodbye kiss?” Bill asked playfully. Dipper responded by gently pushing the other man out through the door.

“Glad that’s over with,” Dipper sighed, relieved that Bill would be gone for a while.

“Now that we’re alone,” Mabel folded her arms over her chest in an angry manner. “We’re able to talk about why you were on TV last night.”

“Yeah, about that…” Dipper trailed off, his eyes flickering around the room, not wanting to meet his sister’s gaze.

“I can’t believe you, Dipper!” Mabel shouted. “I suggest we become heroes, you tell me we need to lay low for now, and then you turn around and become a hero!”

“It was a spur of the moment thing!” Dipper insisted. “People were in danger, and The Illuminator wasn’t there.”

“So, if this was a ‘spur of the moment thing’, does that mean you won’t go out there again?”

“Actually…” Dipper trailed off again and bit his lower lip.

“What is it?” Mabel asked with barely contained anger.

“Okay, so after I rescued the hostages, The Illuminator showed up,” Dipper started to explain.

“Yeah, and he also saved you from getting arrested,” Mabel interrupted with a sigh.

“Anyway, we talked and… I may have arranged a sorta partnership with him?”

“You what?” Mabel glared at him.

“He said he’d train me, and I thought, that was a good opportunity, so I said yes, and…”

“Oh my gee…” Mabel rubbed her forehead in frustration. “So, you’re gonna keep being a hero, and you’ll also work with the monstrous anti hero who’s giving Meliors a bad name?”

“The Illuminator isn’t that bad,” Dipper said as a weak protest.

“You got that from just one meeting?”

“Actually, this was the second time we met… He saved me from a mugger about a week ago… He was actually really nice to me.”

“Okay, this is just… too much for me right now,” Mabel shook her head.

“I know,” Dipper sighed.

“Does this mean I get to be a hero too?” Mabel inquired with a small smile.

“… I don’t think that’s a good idea, Mabel,” Dipper responded. “I mean, maybe in a couple of weeks when I have enough experience to train you. I don’t think I can ask The Illuminator to take on two amateur students.”

In actuality, there were two reasons why Dipper didn’t want Mabel to become a hero just yet; part of it, and most of it, was because Dipper didn’t want to put his sister into danger. Mabel meant the world to him, and he would never forgive himself if something happened to her. He needed to be a better hero first, so that he would able to protect her. The other reason, a reason that Dipper was somewhat ashamed of, was that he didn’t want Mabel to outshine him in front of The Illuminator; Bill had been right, Dipper’s powers weren’t very good in an urban environment, whereas Mabel’s powers, her balls of lights could be used both as a weapon and distraction. Mabel would make a way better hero than Dipper, which he feared would rob him his chance of impressing The Illuminator. Dipper needed some time to get to know the other Melior, to make sure that he would stand out from his sister, instead of getting overshadowed by her.

 

That night, Dipper was standing at the rooftop of the museum, in full costume. The Illuminator hadn’t said where the two would meet, but Dipper felt that this place would be a safe bet.

At around, eleven pm, a shadow in the distance appeared, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, until he landed, heavily but gracefully, in front of Dipper.

“Thought I might find you here,” The Illuminator said with a small smile.

“Well, we never agreed on a meeting place,” Dipper shrugged.

“I guess this is just where we’ll be meeting up?” The Illuminator tilted his head in question.

“Yeah, I’m fine with that,” Dipper agreed, licking his lips as he hadn’t realized how dry they suddenly felt.

“We’ll begin with the basics,” the bigger Melior said before he suddenly lunged after Dipper.

Dipper just barely managed to jump out of the way.

“What the hell!?” he exclaimed.

“You need to learn hand-to-hand combat,” The Illuminator explained. He advanced on Dipper again, this time trying to kick him in the stomach.

Dipper, reacting on reflex, grabbed the other Melior’s leg in the air. The Illuminator responded by twisting his leg in a way that sent Dipper to the floor.

“You have some good reflexes,” The Illuminator noted as he helped Dipper back onto his feet. “What you lack is experience. Let’s try again.”

The combat training continued for an hour, and by then, Dipper’s body was sore and covered in bruises. He felt like he had spent the entire training session getting beaten up.

“I’m starting to think I might not be any good at fighting,” Dipper moaned while rubbing his left shoulder.

“Nonsense,” The Illuminator said dismissively. “This is only your first lesson. Besides, I’m already seeing some improvement. By next week, you’ll be able to take someone down without even using your powers.”

“About that,” Dipper paused to let out a hiss as he accidently touched a rather bad bruise on his arm. “I thought by training, you meant training me in using my powers.”

“Judging from what you pulled yesterday, I think you know how to use your powers,” The Illuminator responded.

“I was only able to do that because I had time,” Dipper protested. “Using my powers require a lot of concentration. Put me in a situation where my attention is needed elsewhere, and I won’t be able to grow a dandelion.”

“Which is why you need combat training,” The Illuminator explained. “So you can defend yourself. I don’t know how your powers work, but you’re manipulating things much more complex than water or fire, so of course you need concentration. I don’t think that’s something you can train out of; I think you’ll always need to pay attention to control your plants.”

“Then, my powers are completely useless,” Dipper sighed.

“They’re not useless,” The Illuminator insisted. “No power is useless, if you know how to use it. And you clearly know how to use yours. Who knows? Maybe after a while, you’ll even gain a fan club? It’s probably also gonna be a garden club, but still.”

“I’m gonna assume that last part was a joke,” Dipper laughed. “Same time tomorrow?”

Before The Illuminator was able to reply, a big crash, like lightning striking down, rang through the night, accompanied by an explosion close to the nearest shopping strip.

“Looks like there’s a need for us,” The Illuminator said. “You coming?”

“… Just try and stop me,” Dipper smiled, and the two heroes ran across the rooftops to the shopping strip.

 

When they arrived, they saw that the explosion had occurred outside an electronics store. In front of a huge, smoking hole in the wall, stood a young woman, with bright pink hair, and a somewhat creepy smile.

“… Tiffany?” The Illuminator whispered, apparently recognizing this person.

“No, of course not,” the pink-haired girl said in an almost electronic-sounding voice. “I am Giffany, now. It is wonderful to see you again, Alex.”

“I’m not ‘Alex’ anymore!” The Illuminator snarled. Dipper assumed that “Alex” must have been a previous identity for The Illuminator. “… What happened to you?”

“I see you have a brought me a new boyfriend,” Giffany ignored The Illuminator’s question and focused her eyes, which were also pink, at Dipper. Electricity started to spark around her arms. “We are going to be so happy together.”

A shot of electricity was fired from Giffany’s arm, heading towards Dipper. Despite his sore body, Dipper was able to dodge the shot, which hit a store on the other side.

“Ti- Giffany, I can help you,” The Illuminator said in a calm tone.

“Are you trying to get between me and my boyfriend?” Giffany’s smile was gone, replaced with an empty, unsettling look, as she turned her head towards The Illuminator. She fired another shot of electricity, this time at The Illuminator, who easily moved out of the way.

While Giffany was distracted, Dipper proceeded to grow two vines out of some cracks in the tiles near her feet, and make them tie around her ankles, keeping her in place.

Of course, Giffany felt the vines snake around legs, and looked at Dipper.

“Are you doing this, boyfriend?” she tilted her head. Electricity began to envelope her body as all the streetlamps started to flash with incredible intensity, until their light bulbs burst. Giffany raised her arms, and the previously turned off electronics inside the store flashed to life, until they too burst. That sound sent Giffany flying at such a speed that the vines around her ankles snapped. She grabbed Dipper and held him to a wall, electricity still coursing through her body.

“Soon, we can be together… forever…” Giffany whispered with an eerie smile. Dipper began to feel the electricity, painful shocks passing from Giffany to Dipper, back to Giffany and again to him.

Then, Giffany was hit in the back of her head by a fireball, and her hair began to burn. She whipped her head around to find that The Illuminator had been the one to throw the ball. The villainess dropped Dipper to the floor, and began to walk towards The Illuminator.

Dipper gasped for air, his body still feeling tender and tingling from the electric shocks he received, but he managed to force himself to sit up. He saw The Illuminator fighting Giffany, from the looks of it trying to incapacitate her without hurting her too much.

Dipper looked around, trying to think up a new plan; he needed some way to help The Illuminator, without drawing attention to himself again. When he spotted a road, blocked off by a line of boulders, evidently to prevent cars from driving into the shopping strip, he got an idea. Dipper grew another vine, this one big and thick, and made the vine pick up one of the boulders, and hurl it at Giffany. The boulder, about half the size of Giffany, hit her right in the back, just as she was about to shoot The Illuminator with another shot of electricity.

Giffany fell to the ground, unconscious. The Illuminator first made sure that the villainess wasn’t getting back up, and then hurried over to Dipper to help him back on his legs.

“Are you alright?” The Illuminator asked him, while helping him over to Giffany’s unconscious body. “That much electricity can do a number on you.”

“I’m fine,” Dipper assured him. Giffany’s body started to glow, the light enveloping her body only to dissipate, leaving behind a girl with long, dark brown hair, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. “I didn’t know the transformation wears off if we fall unconscious.”

“It doesn’t,” The Illuminator let go off Dipper and pulled up Giffany’s t-shirt to reveal her back; her transformation stone, a pink and blue striped one shaped like a square, was broken. “The hit from the boulder must’ve broken it, and the pain was most likely what caused her to fall unconscious.”

“Urgh, I don’t wanna look at that,” Dipper frowned in mild disgust; seeing a broken transformation stone was kind of like seeing an arm bent a completely wrong way, or seeing someone with a wound so deep you can see the bone. But like a train wreck, no matter how horrible it looked, Dipper couldn’t force himself to look away. Aside from the broken part, something else was off about her transformation stone. The edges were too sharp, and the placement… All transformation stones were located directly in the center, but hers were located about an inch too far to the right.

“Tiffany…” The Illuminator sighed as he looked at the unconscious girl.

“Right, you seemed to know her,” Dipper looked at his mentor. “Who is she?”

“Tiffany Archer, she’s… a character from my past, before I came to Gravity Falls,” The Illuminator responded.

“So, were the two of you a duo before?”

“No,” The Illuminator gave Dipper a very serious look. “Because Tiffany was never a Melior.”

Before Dipper could ask any further questions, the sound of police sirens were heard in the distance.

“We need to get out of here,” The Illuminator said. “Can you escape on your own?” Dipper gave a silent nod. “Good. We’ll meet tomorrow; same place, same time.”

And with that, the two Meliors ran off in different directions, right as the police arrived. A female officer, exited one of the police cars, walked over and picked up Giffany.

“Can I get identification on this Melior?” she asked one her subordinates. A male officer pulled out a gun-like object and placed to Giffany’s head, pulling the trigger. A small screen on the machine lit up, and the officer read the information displayed:

“Ginny Bowman, AKA Tiffany Archer, AKA ‘Giffany’,” he read out loud. “Daughter of scientist, Daichi Archer. Belongs to the ‘Institute of Melior Psychology’, where Mr. Archer also works. Has escaped said institute twice. Is part of the ‘Darwin Project’.”

“Get her in handcuffs and into the car,” the female officer replied. “I’ll call IMP, so they can send someone to return her to the facility.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: Originally, I wanted Giffany to teleport through electronic objects, similiarly to how Lady Wifi from Miraculous Ladybug could teleport through phones, but I couldn't figure out how to incoporate it into the fight scene, so I had to scrap it.
> 
> Also, since flowers are going to be a constant background element in this fic, let's just say if you look up the meanings to the flowers featured, you might discover some hidden meaningsX3
> 
> In the next chapter, Dipper, not Pine Tree but Dipper, will be kidnapped by a villain who wants to settle a score with The Illuminator.
> 
> Please leave a comment if you want to, comments are what sustains meX3


	5. Episode 4: Explosive Reactions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper is kidnapped by a villain seeking revenge on The Illuminator.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry this took so long! I've been visiting my mother these last two weekends, which has cut into a lot of my writing time. Anyway, hope you like it:3

Weeks later, Dipper was still getting used to his new sleeping schedule, now that he was spending almost every night fighting crime and training to fight crime, so it was no uncommon occurrence for him to wake up late and walking down to the flower shop, only to find Mabel and Bill already getting the shop ready for the day, and as always, talking.

“I guess he seems a bit… scary,” Mabel was in the middle of changing the display flowers when Dipper arrived.

“A bit?” Bill scoffed in response to the young woman. “I’m surprised anyone even stays in the city with that monster running around.”

“Who are you talking about?” Dipper asked, leaning against the wall.

“The Illuminator,” Mabel answered.

“What?” Dipper exclaimed in surprise. “Okay, the guy might look a little frightening at first, but that doesn’t mean he’s a monster.”

“He seems like a monster to me,” Bill said under his breath, just loud enough for Dipper to hear it.

“Seriously?” Dipper walked over to the blond man. “Are you one of those jerks who just assume that all Meliors are violent psychopaths?!”

“Well, a lot of people hold that belief,” Bill shrugged nonchalantly. “Why do you care?”

“Bill,” Mabel interjected in a soft tone. “Two of me and Dipper’s uncles were Melior.”

“And they were heroes at that!” Dipper added.

“Oh, right, your last name’s Pines, like Ford and Stan Pines,” Bill slapped his forehead in realization. “Look, I’m sure there’s a lot of nice Meliors out there, and your uncles were probably among them, but The Illuminator isn’t. I mean, have you seen what he does to criminals? That mind wipe thing he does?”

“To be fair, according to the news, he hasn’t done that lately,” Mabel argued.

“And so what?” Dipper ignored his sister and focused on Bill. “I don’t approve of his methods, but why in the world would you assume that someone who risks his own life to safe others is a monster?!”

“I’m just saying what everyone in this city is thinking,” Bill frowned. “The Illuminator is a monst-“

A big smack sounded as Dipper’s flat hand collided with Bill’s cheek. The blond man looked at Dipper in shock, clutching the cheek that was struck.

“You don’t ever talk about him like that,” Dipper growled, his voice quiet and filled with fury.

“Why do you care about him so much?” Bill asked.

“Because he saved my life,” Dipper replied. Bill seemed surprised for a moment before his trademark smirk returned.

“Well, if he saved someone as cute as you, guess he can’t be all bad, Porcupine~”

They were interrupted, from further conversation, by a customer walking in, asking for petunias. After that, most of the day flew by rather quickly.

 

By the time evening rolled around and there seemed to be no more customers for the day, Dipper headed out to the grocery store. He had a small piece of paper in his pocket, listing all the things he needed to get; Dipper often lamented the fact that he’s super intelligence didn’t seem to make his memory any better, in fact, sometimes he swore it made it worse.

While walking down the street, Dipper noticed a middle-aged man trying to call out to people, who in turn ignored him. Dipper assumed the man was probably working for some kind of charity organization or the like, since there seemed to be a lot of those in the city. When Dipper passed the man, he was called out too.

“Excuse me,” the man said as he approached Dipper. “Can you spare a moment of your time?”

“Sorry, I don’t have any cash on me,” Dipper apologized.

“No, no, I’m not asking for money,” the man replied. “My name is Frank Daniels, and I’m working on a documentary about Meliors effect on society. I’m trying to get both sides of the argument, but while I’ve found a lot of people willing to share their negative view on Meliors, I haven’t found many with positive views. So, I wanted to hear what your general opinion, and maybe let me record it on camera.”

“Uh, well, my opinion is pretty positive, I guess,” Dipper shrugged, trying to appear casual. “Actually, on my first day in Gravity Falls, I was saved from a mugger by The Illuminator.”

“The Illuminator?” Frank’s face suddenly got blank.

“Yeah, so, you know, it would be kinda hypocritical of me to badmouth Meliors, since one of them saved me,” Dipper continued.

“Would you… mind telling your story on camera?” Frank asked. “My studio is right around the corner, and all my equipment is already set up. I promise, it will only take about ten minutes.”

“Well, I’m not really in a hurry,” Dipper pulled out his phone to take a quick look at the time; it was only around five pm, and Mabel expected him home around six pm at the latest. “Yeah, I’ve got the time.”

“Great!” Frank gave him a bright smile as the older man led Dipper to his studio. It seemed to be a small studio apartment, probably doubling as Frank’s home.

After Dipper entered the apartment, he took a look around; there was indeed a camera sat up, along with a laptop and a white screen, which was probably meant to be a background. A small chair was placed in front of the screen, so Dipper walked over to it, assuming he would need to sit there for the recording, when something blunt suddenly hit him in the back of the head, pain spreading from the place of the impact, before he lost consciousness.

 

As Dipper regained consciousness, the first thing he noticed was that he was outside, judging from the cold wind. The second thing he noticed was that he was tied up. He opened his eyes, a view of the city at night meeting him, as he realized he was tied to a pole at the top floor of the city’s old bell tower. He turned his head and could just barely spot the old, dusty bells behind him, before he looked down and saw that a great, big crowd had gathered on the street beneath, including a news crew.

“Are you ready for your big performance?” a voice asked. Dipper turned his head again, this time seeing a man, dressed in a red and black costume, with orange, stylized letters on his chest spelling out: TNT, and holding a cordless microphone in one hand. The man didn’t carry much likeness to Frank Daniels, but that was mainly the point of a ‘form.

“Frank Daniels?” Dipper asked, a voice carrying a slight tremble, mostly from the cold, but judging from Frank’s expression, he seemed to believe it was from fear.

“Yes,” Frank nodded and began to speak through the microphone, the sound of his voice echoing out of a couple of loudspeakers placed down on the street. “But right now, you can refer to me as TNT, and if you’re wondering I got that name from,” his free hand began to shine a glowing red color as he placed it on the bell behind Dipper.

Dipper could just barely see what Frank, or TNT, was doing; when the glowing hand was placed on the bell, red streaks of light shut out from his hand, coursing across the bell like lightning bolts, until the old bell exploded into dust.

“Why are you doing this?” Dipper asked.

“Could you please repeat that into the microphone?” TNT held the microphone to Dipper’s mouth, awaiting the young man to speak again.

“Why did you kidnap me?” Dipper said, his voice ringing out from the loudspeakers.

“You see,” TNT began to speak into the microphone again. “I was originally going to hear your opinion on Meliors, maybe use it in my movie, but then you mentioned that you knew The Illuminator.”

“I never said that,” Dipper protested, but TNT kept going.

“You said that he had rescued you. Now, anyone who has lived in this city for any amount of time knows that The Illuminator isn’t some guardian angel that swoops in and saves people; he terrorizes criminals and civilians, humans and Meliors alike.”

“What do you know about The Illuminator?” Dipper scoffed.

“I know that he mind wipes people,” TNT responded. “And you wanna know how I know that? Because he did that to my cousin; he turned her into a mindless doll! She doesn’t even recognize me anymore. And why? Because my cousin robbed a bank, that’s why. The Illuminator is a disgrace to all Meliors, and he needs to be stopped.”

“What does that have to do with me?” Dipper asked.

“You claimed that The Illuminator saved you, out of the goodness of his heart. Well, if he did that once, surely he would so again,” TNT jumped down to the street, somehow managing not to suffer any damage from the great fall.

A group of police officers had arrived at the scene of the crime, and pulled out their guns. TNT responded to the sight by spreading out his arms, as if he waited for them to shoot him. One officer, who was apparently somewhat trigger-happy, took a couple of shots at TNT, but the bullets just seemed to… peel off, almost like his skin was made from some super tough leather.

“He’s resistant to physical force,” Dipper mumbled in realization before TNT resumed his speech:

“Now that we have that out of the way, let’s move on. We’re about to see if this young man is liar or not; I shall now use my powers to make the bell tower crumble. If this young man told the truth, that The Illuminator saved him, we should very well see said Melior come and rescue him, thus allowing me to take my revenge and remove that sham of a hero off of the face of the world! But the young man was lying… Well, we’ll be seeing a rather spectacular sight as he falls with the building.”

Dipper could see the faint red glow, as TNT placed his on the tower; the crackling light spread, and Dipper could feel the entire bell tower shake.

“Better start screaming for your hero!” TNT yelled sarcastically at Dipper.

Dipper decided that, since all he could do was shout for help, he might as well do so.

“HELP!!!” he shouted as loudly as he could. “Please! HELP!!!”

The tower began shaking more violently, as a small part of the lower level exploded, leading to the entire tower beginning to crumble. The people who had gathered down at the street started to run away, as pieces of stone, concrete, and wood, fell down.

Dipper could feel the trembling of the tower worsen as more of it crumbled away. Just as he had given up hope and braced for the inevitable impact, a familiar figure landed before him.

“I heard you needed help,” The Illuminator said with a friendly smile as he began free Dipper from the ropes keeping him captive. The Illuminator then picked Dipper up into his arms, and jumped from the falling building to the nearest rooftop.

“Thank you for saving me,” Dipper told the hero.

“So, you did show up!” TNT yelled from the ground-level.

“I need to get you away from here,” The Illuminator mumbled to Dipper right as TNT placed his hand on the building they were standing on.

“NO!!!” Dipper yelled while The Illuminator jumped off the crumbling building. “That monster…” Dipper whispered.

“Let’s hope the building was evacuated,” The Illuminator responded in a neutral tone, landing on the street and setting Dipper down. “Get out of here. I’ll take care of the villain.”

Dipper nodded and turned around, already planning to duck into the nearest alleyway and transform.

“Oh no, you don’t,” Dipper barely heard TNT say that before he was tackled to the ground by the villain. TNT used one hand to hold both of Dipper’s wrists behind his back. The other, the villain enveloped in glowing red, light, holding it close to Dipper’s face. “I’m not too sure what my powers will do to a person,” TNT taunted at The Illuminator. “But I’m sure you wouldn’t like to find out.”

Dipper attempted to get free from TNT’s grasp, but while out of his ‘form, he lacked the extra strength to do so.

“You know I’m more powerful than you,” The Illuminator said calmly, slowly advancing towards TNT. “Even if you kill him, I’ll still be able to destroy you.”

“But now I know that you care about this boy,” TNT smirked and brought his glowing hand closer to Dipper’s throat. The Illuminator took a step away, purely on reflex. “I thought so.”

“What do you want?” The Illuminator asked, sounding rather angry.

“Justice,” TNT responded. “I want you dead after what you did to my cousin!”

“Carey Simmons, right? I did what I had to do, to protect these people,” The Illuminator replied.

“She robbed a bank, and you turned her into a vegetable!” TNT roared. Dipper could feel the villain’s grip loosen slightly. If it only loosened a bit more, Dipper could bide his time for the perfect moment to get free.

“She killed a security guard,” The Illuminator argued.

“That was an accident! She couldn’t control her powers.”

“Did you honestly believe that lie?” The Illuminator tilted his head. “Anyone with minimal knowledge about Melior powers could see that she was in complete control; you don’t an ability to detect lies to tell that. Your cousin only said she lacked control to try and get out of her punishment.”

“NO!!! My cousin isn’t like that! You don’t know her!” TNT shouted. At that moment, Dipper freed himself from the villain’s grip, and elbowed him in the stomach. TNT fell to the ground, probably more from shock than pain. Dipper hurried up and pinned TNT to the ground, with the assistance of The Illuminator once the hero realized what Dipper was doing.

TNT was thrashing under them, but the combined strength of Dipper and The Illuminator was too much.

“If only my partner was here,” The Illuminator sighed. “He’d be able to tie this guy down.”

“Y-your partner?” Dipper stuttered, slightly flustered at hearing The Illuminator unknowingly refer to him as a partner.

“Yeah, Pine Tree,” The Illuminator shrugged. “He’s a new hero; not anything special, but he has the power to control plants.”

“Hmph, from what I’ve seen, he’s pretty good,” Dipper pouted, looking away from the hero.

“Well, he’s alright, of course,” The Illuminator quickly amended. “But he’s still just a rookie.”

Dipper frowned at the other Melior, but decided to change the subject, as this was neither the time nor the place for this discussion.

“So, what do we do with this guy?” Dipper asked. “Wait for the police to arrive?”

“No, he’s too dangerous for the police to handle,” The Illuminator shook his head. “… I’ll need to do something about him…”

“Wait!” Dipper reacted on reflex and placed his hand on The Illuminator’s chest, hoping to stop any further action. Looking down at where he had placed his hand, Dipper blushed and removed it again. “You… You aren’t going to mind wipe him, right?”

“I… haven’t actually used the mind wipe in a while,” The Illuminator confessed. “Not since you asked me not to.”

“You… you haven’t?” Dipper asked, a small spark of happiness igniting inside him; he had of course known that The Illuminator hadn’t used the mind wipe, being his crime fighting partner and all, but he hadn’t known that he had been the reason The Illuminator stopped. “Then, what do you suggest we do?”

“Break his transformation stone,” The Illuminator said, pulling up TNT’s shirt to reveal the stone; it was round and black, with a red spot in the middle.

“No! Please, don’t!” TNT protested and begged, thrashing around wilder than before.

“We… we can’t do that!” Dipper yelled, disgusted at the suggestion. “We can’t just… take away his powers like that, even if he’s used them for evil; those powers are a part of him.”

“What?” The Illuminator gave him a confused look. “Transformation stones don’t stop working forever, just because you break them…”

“Wait, really?”

“As hard as they are, they’re still organic material; they heal,” The Illuminator explained while casually grabbing a nearby brick, leftover from TNT’s building destruction. “Like a broken bone; you’re unable to use it for a while,” as he said that, he brought the brick down on the transformation stone, hard. The brick broke on impact, alongside several pieces of the transformation stone breaking off. TNT screamed when the brick hit, before fainting from the pain. “And then it heals up, better than new.”

“Well, guess you learn something new every day,” Dipper remarked awkwardly, rising to his feet.

“He’ll stay unconscious until the police arrive,” The Illuminator noted, also rising from the ground, as TNT’s body lit up and his body returned to the man Dipper had met on the street.

“Thanks for saving me again,” Dipper told The Illuminator. Stepping closer to the hero, Dipper needed to bend his neck to look up at the much taller Melior.

“You’re welcome,” The Illuminator responded. “Thanks for the help taking care of TNT.”

The couple was interrupted by the sound of police sirens.

“I have to go,” The Illuminator said. “Do you know how to get home from here?”

“Actually, no,” Dipper responded honestly. “But I’m sure I’ll figure out- whoah!” Dipper exclaimed as he was once again picked up by the hero and held in his strong embrace.

“I’m afraid I can’t let you wander the streets alone, this late at night,” The Illuminator said with a small smirk. “You’re bound to run into some more unsavory types.”

“Well, if you don’t mind taking me home, then,” Dipper trailed off, slightly embarrassed, and soon the two of them were traveling across the rooftops, to the flower shop.

 

Colonel Wendy Corduroy sighed, looking over the reports her subordinates had given her on the newest Melior; his name was “Frank Daniels”, his alter ego “TNT”, and his previous identities included “Hank Simmons” and “Henry Lawrence”.

The Melior had caused the destruction of two building, one of which was an apartment complex. Luckily, all apartment complexes near the incident had been evacuated as soon as TNT had been spotted, so injuries had been minimal, but now the city needed to start thinking about repair costs, and of course the police was being blamed for not stopping the Melior before these damages had occurred.

Corduroy took a swig of her coffee, already sensing it was going to be a long night, when she heard the door open and someone step up to her desk. The person in question was a young man, dressed in a completely white suit, smiling in a manner that was probably supposed to be friendly, but came off as creepy.

“Can I help you?” the Colonel asked, trying to keep back a groan.

“Yes, I represent the Institute of Melior Psychology,” the man responded. “One of my colleagues showed up some weeks ago, taking Giffany back into custody.”

“You mean, Ginny Bowman, right?” Corduroy asked, slightly confused.

“Oh, yes, of course,” the man laughed heartily at the small slip up.

“Does your institute usually refer to your participants and patients by their alter egos?”

“Of course not,” the man shook his head insistently, still smiling creepily. “Anyway, we received word about your district taking another Melior into custody…”

“That’s… true,” Corduroy responded warily, wondering how IMP could already know that. “But we have taken Meliors into custody before, and not been contacted by your institute.”

“Yes, but those Meliors were victims of that… mind wipe,” the man’s smile faltered slightly. “But this one isn’t, correct?”

“Yes, Mr. Daniels’ transformation stone has only been broken.”

“Well, you know that means it’ll heal sooner or later, right?” the man asked, not waiting for an answer before he continued. “And I don’t believe your police station has the equipment necessary to detain a Melior of his abilities, so my superiors have a proposition: we will take TNT into our custody, no strings attached, and you won’t have to worry about keeping your city safe from him anymore!”

“Alright,” Corduroy nodded slowly, noticing that the man had used Mr. Daniels’ alias, just like Ms. Bowman. “But what is your institute getting out of this?”

“IMP is looking for new Meliors for the ‘Darwin Project’,” the man explained. “We will of course not force T- Mr. Daniels to participate, but we believe he will be very interested once he hears the detail.”

“What is the ‘Darwin Project’ exactly?” Corduroy asked. “Your website mentions it, and it even showed up on Ms. Bowman’s profile, but I haven’t been able to find any details on it.”

“At the moment, the Project isn’t ready to be unveiled,” the man explained. “But we are getting closer to a breakthrough, and my superiors have informed me that a big announcement will be ready within a year, so you’ll just have to wait for that. Now, do we have a deal?”

“.. Okay,” Corduroy sighed. “You’re right; we don’t have the equipment or resources needed to keep a Melior detained. He’ll probably do less harm at your institute.”

“Wonderful! I’m so glad we came to an agreement…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Adding Wendy was kind of a spur of the moment, since I hadn't even planned for her to appear in this fic, but I realized we needed a character on the side of the police, and decided Wendy would fit that role perfectly. I know I could've used Blubbs or Durland, but I wanted to make the role a more serious one. And also, let it be known that I know nothing about american police ranking, I just did a small google search, so I hope Colonel works.
> 
> Well, hope you liked it:3 I think I'll work a little on the Trustworthy AU Epilogue, and the Lovesick Au (I feel like I've been neglecting the Lovesick Au) before I work on the next chapter of this.
> 
> Please leave a comment if you want to, I love to get comments:3


	6. Episode 5: Christmas Lights Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mabel invites Bill to spend Christmas with her and Dipper, and later, Pine Tree and The Illuminator must stop a power stealing Melior.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long, I've been dealing with a lot lately, so I haven't been writing as much as I normally do. On the bright side, this chapter is a little longer than usual:3

Dipper looked outside his window at the falling snow. It was the early morning of December 24th, and tomorrow it would be Christmas. This would be the first Christmas that Dipper and Mabel had to celebrate without their family. While that thought did sadden the young Melior a bit, something else filled his mind. Mainly, Dipper had been wondering for the last week, if he should give a Christmas present to The Illuminator. The two of them had worked together for about a month now, but Dipper still wasn’t sure where he stood with the other Melior. Were the just a crime fighting team, or could they be considered friends? Would The Illuminator reject Dipper’s gift? And then, of course, there was the question of what he should give The Illuminator; Dipper had no idea what the hero wished for, what he needed. And so, Dipper was sitting there, in the early morning hours, wondering.

 

In the early afternoon, Mabel was out doing some last minute shopping for Christmas. She had hoped she would’ve had the opportunity sooner, but there had been a surprisingly high demand for flowers the last couple of weeks, which was great for business, but also gave the young woman less time to get the holiday shopping done.

Luckily, it was just going to be her and Dipper this Christmas, so she didn’t have to worry about getting too many presents. In fact, she had only gotten two; one for Dipper, and one for Bill. And speaking of the devil, Mabel spotted her co-worker walking down the street in the opposite direction.

“Bill!” she called out excitedly and ran up to him.

“Oh, hi, boss,” Bill smirked when he saw her.

“I told you to stop calling me that,” Mabel giggled. “You know the full title is ‘Boss Mabel’.”

“Of course, how could I have been such a fool,” Bill said in a teasing tone. “So tell me, why are you walking around in the cold? Hoping to break a couple of hearts?”

“Nah, maybe another time,” Mabel shrugged, still smiling. “I’m doing some last minute Christmas shopping; I haven’t had a chance to do so until now. What about you?”

Bill shook his head. “I haven’t really done any Christmas shopping, don’t plan to.”

“Oh, you don’t celebrate Christmas?” Mabel asked.

“Nope,” Bill responded, his smile faded away. “Don’t have anyone to celebrate with, for the last… well, ever.”

“You don’t have any family to celebrate with?” Mabel asked, her voice filled with concern.

“I’ve never known my family,” Bill answered. “I grew up an orphan. So, no, I’ve never celebrated Christmas before.”

“Bill,” Mabel pulled the strap on her shopping bag up on her shoulder, grabbed Bill by his shoulders, and looked at him intensely. “You’re gonna celebrate Christmas with me and Dipper this year.”

Bill let out a surprised laugh. “Oh, come on, Mabel, I can’t intrude on your family.”

“It’s not an offer, it’s an order, from your boss,” Mabel said, took a hold of Bill’s arm and pulled him along. “Now, let’s buy some presents!”

 

Dipper was sitting on the couch in the living room, watching some Christmas special, not really paying much attention, when he heard his sister come home.

“I’m home!” she shouted happily as she ran into the living room and gave her brother a big hug.

“How was the…” Dipper paused in the middle of his sentence, when he saw Bill standing in the doorway. “Uh, Mabel?” he whispered to his sister. “What’s he doing here?”

“Glad you ask, bro-bro!” Mabel said excitedly. “I ran into him during my shopping trip, and well, Bill has no plans for Christmas, so I invited him to celebrate with us!”

“Seriously, Mabel?” Dipper hissed at her, still trying to keep his voice low.

“Is that a problem?” Bill asked, taking off his coat and hanging it on a nearby hanger.

“Of course it’s not!” Mabel insisted and started pushing her brother towards her room. “I just… need to talk to Dipper about something…”

After they were both inside Mabel’s room, she shut the door, turned around, and gave her brother a big glare.

“What?” Dipper crossed his arms defensively over his chest. “Mabel, you know I don’t like Bill; I can barely stand him during work hours, what made you think I could handle celebrating Christmas with him?”

“Bill has never celebrated Christmas before!” Mabel nearly shrieked, grabbing her brother by his shoulders and shaking him.

“Lots of people don’t celebrate Christmas, Mabel!” Dipper argued and removed his sister’s hands.

“No, I mean, Bill has never had anyone to celebrate anything with!” Mabel explained. “He’s never had a family…”

“Oh,” Dipper said in realization. “I didn’t know that… Well, if he wants to, I guess he can stay…”

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” Mabel cheered, giving her brother a big hug. “By the by,” she continued in a calmer tone, letting go of Dipper. “Why do you hate Bill so much?”

“I don’t hate him!” Dipper insisted. “Why don’t you ask him why he hates me?”

“… Because he doesn’t hate you?”

“Are you kidding me?” Dipper threw his hands up in frustration. “All he ever does is bother and tease me! He’s constantly making fun of me!”

“I think he’s flirting with you, Dipper. I actually think he really likes you.”

“Mabel, that’s not flirting,” Dipper sighed. “It’s like back in school, when that girl invited me out as a joke, only to laugh me in the face when I said yes.”

“Oh, Dipper,” Mabel placed a hand on her brother’s arm. “That was a really jerky thing she did… But that was ten years ago, and Bill wouldn’t do that.”

“I’m not taking any chances,” Dipper said determinately. “If Bill really likes me, he should treat me more like-“ Dipper quickly clammed a hand over his mouth, realizing he had said too much.

“Like who?” Mabel asked suspiciously.

“No one!” Dipper said.

“I don’t buy that,” Mabel punctuated her response by poking her brother’s arm. “Now, who could you be talking about? It wouldn’t happen to be that Illuminator-guy, right?”

“No! Of course not! What gave you that idea?” Dipper laughed nervously, already knowing that his lie wasn’t very convincing.

“Oh nothing, just the way you’re constantly talking about how great he is, how kind he is, how attractive he is…”

“I’ve never talked about how attractive he is.”

“So you admit you find him attractive?”

“Alright, fine, I may have a crush on The Illuminator,” Dipper admitted and flopped down on Mabel’s bed. “And I really want him to like me, but I don’t think he takes me seriously!”

“Don’t worry,” Mabel winked at him. “Sooner or later, that guy will realize what a catch you are. And if it’s any consolation, I don’t think he’s good enough for you.”

“That’s not comforting in the slightest!”

 

After Dipper and Mabel’s discussion, they returned to the living room. The evening was spent with eating pizza for dinner, watching various Christmas specials on TV, and drinking hot chocolate. At around eleven pm, right as the station they were currently watching started playing It’s A Wonderful Life, Mabel rose from the couch.

“I’m heading off to bed now,” she said. “I wanna get up early tomorrow.”

“Sleep tight,” Dipper replied.

“Oh, Dipper, can you help Bill make the couch?” Mabel asked before walking off. “He needs somewhere to sleep too.”

“And here I thought me and Porcupine were gonna share beds~” Bill smirked. Dipper resisted the urge to smack Bill with a pillow, and instead let out a groan.

“Sure thing, Mabel,” Dipper nodded, watching Mabel leave. He turned his gaze to Bill to discover, that the other man was already engrossed with the movie. “Have you seen this film before?”

“Eh, I caught one time a couple years back,” Bill shrugged. “It was alright.”

“You seem to be pretty focused on it,” Dipper remarked.

“Well, I do like the message,” Bill replied. “That you can go through our entire life, doing the right thing for unselfish reasons, and you’ll still get blamed for things you never even did. But if you didn’t basically turn yourself into a martyr, everything would be much worse.”

“… I’m pretty sure that’s not the message of the film,” Dipper mumbled, but didn’t push further.

About half an hour into the movie, the TV suddenly shut off, along with the one lamp there had still been on.

“What was that?” Dipper gasped in surprised. “A power outage?”

“Wait, what’s that?” Bill pointed out a nearby window; in the distance, streaks of blue lightning shot through the sky, illuminating the night.

“An electrical storm, maybe?” Dipper suggested, knowing full well that’s not what it was. “Hmm… Looks like all the neighbors houses lost power too, as well as the streetlamps…” Dipper gave Bill a quick look before giving a half-hearted shrug. “Well, guess it’s time for bed now anyway. Let’s get the couch made-“

“Oh, that’s alright!” Bill waved Dipper off. “I don’t need sheets or anything. You just go to bed, and then I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Okay then,” Dipper agreed and tried to walk as quickly to his room, without coming off too suspicious. As soon as he was inside his room, he transformed and jumped out of the window, heading towards the blue lightning.

 

Dipper was led right to the power plant. It seemed that the lightning, rather than striking down, was flying up from the plant to the sky.

“I’m surprised to see you here,” Dipper turned his head and saw that The Illuminator had arrived. “I would have thought you had some other plans.”

“I thought the same about you,” Dipper responded, avoiding the question. He turned his head back to the power plant, to further observe the odd lightning. “It’s most likely the work of a Melior.”

“Not just any Melior,” The Illuminator shook his head slowly. “That lightning is the signature of one of Europe’s biggest villains; Power Outage.”

“What’s a European villain doing in North America?” Dipper asked.

“Her secret identity got uncovered a few months ago,” The Illuminator replied. “She probably moved here a while ago, and has been lying low until now.” At that moment, the lightning stopped. The Illuminator began advancing towards the plant, followed by Dipper.

“Wait,” Dipper whispered to the other Melior. “What are her powers?”

“She has the ability to steal all kinds of energy, to store and use as she pleases,” The Illuminator explained. “If we break her transformation stone, it should release all the stolen energy.”

“Alright,” Dipper nodded. The two heroes were right in front of the power plant, ready to enter. “What’s the plan?”

Before The Illuminator had a chance to answer, the doors in front of them burst open, sending the two of them flying backwards. They were able to quickly recover and land on their feet, albeit a bit away from each other.

In front of them, standing in the opening, stood Power Outage; she had dark skin, with lines of glowing, blue light across her face and body, blue eyes, a pony tail of dreadlocks, most of the braids dark blue, but a couple of cyan ones mixed in, the cyan braids soaring around her like they were affected by the electricity. She was dressed in tight, dark blue pants, with a black belt, black combat boots, and a dark blue, turtleneck top. Her arms were bare, except for a pair of yellow rubber gloves.

“Ah, The Illuminator,” she said in a British accent, a confident smirk on her lips. “Just the Melior I was looking for. I’ve got all this leftover energy that I’m just itching to get rid of.”

“Then don’t you think you should return it to where you got from?” The Illuminator playfully suggested.

Power Outage laughed. “You really are something else,” she turned her head over to Dipper. “And I see you even brought your boy toy.”

“Excuse me?” Dipper said indignantly.

“Don’t worry, mate; it’s not you I’m after,” she waved him off and began to removed her gloves. “I have bigger fish to fry.”

Power Outage lunged at The Illuminator, her right hand reaching for him. The Illuminator dodged and aimed a kick at the villainess, who in turn grabbed his leg and twisted him around, sending him to the ground.

Dipper had originally planned to use his powers while Power Outage was distracted, but now that the villain had gained the upper hand, he threw caution to the wind and ran towards her.

Power Outage noticed Dipper running towards her, and she shot a bolt of lightning towards him, forcing Dipper to dodge by jumping to the side. This small distraction allowed The Illuminator to attack once again, but Power Outage had seen that coming. The villainess dodged The Illuminator’s punch, while lifting up part of his suit, revealing his transformation stone. Power Outage touched it, blue sparks flying from her hands, and The Illuminator fell unconscious to the floor.

“Oho, this might be the best I’ve ever had,” she remarked as she absorbed the energy.

“What did you do!?” Dipper screamed, rushing to The Illuminator limp body.

“Don’t worry, mate, he’s fine,” Power Outage giggled. “He’s just a little under-the-weather.” The villainess advanced towards Dipper. “Now, be a good, little sidekick, and carry that worthless bag of bones to safety. I’m gonna be busy for a while.”

“No,” Dipper rose to his feet, glaring at Power Outage. “This isn’t over yet; you haven’t defeated me.”

“Oh, come on!” Power Outage let out an uproarious laughter. “What are you gonna do? Give me a nice bouquet? I don’t have a flower allergy if that’s what you think.”

“I can do more than flowers,” Dipper gritted through his teeth, subtle using his powers to start growing a thick, flexible stalk.

“And do you know what I can do, now that I hold The Illuminator’s powers?” she tilted her chin and summoned a fireball in her hand.

“The Illuminator’s powers?” Dipper exclaimed.

“I can steal any kind of energy, even powers,” the villain grinned. “So, just surrender. I mean, what can you even do against someone as powerful as me?”

“Well, I’ve recently figured out one thing I’m pretty good at,” Dipper shrugged.

“Oh really? And what is that?”

“Distracting people with enormous egos,” Dipper replied, just as he made the stalk wrap around Power Outage. The plant ensnared her around the waist, capturing her arms as well, and lifted her from the ground.

“Is that really the best you’ve got?” Power Outage gave a cocky smile. “I can escape for this in five seconds!”

“That’s all the time I need,” Dipper smiled confidently as he rushed away. Power Outage used her newly acquired fire powers to burn the plant down and free herself. At that point, Dipper had already grabbed what he needed.

“You know, maybe I should just steal your powers,” Power Outage announced. “Can’t hurt to have some flower power around, right?”

She began to run towards Dipper, both her hands stretched out. Dipper in turn, ran towards her as well, hands behind his back. As the two Meliors got closer to each other, Dipper removed his hands from behind his back, revealing the pair of yellow rubber gloves. He then leapt over Power Outage, slipping the gloves on her hands in the process, landing behind her and grabbed her arms.

“What in blazes-!?” Power Outage yelled in shock.

“You can’t control your powers,” Dipper said.

“What? Yes, I can!” Power Outage began struggling, but Dipper held her in place.

“You can control the energy you steal,” Dipper elaborated. “But you can’t control your ability to steal energy; if you touch something with your hands, you automatically absorb the energy. That’s why you have those gloves; they prevent you from stealing unwanted energy. But they also prevent you from using your stolen powers.”

“… How did you figure that out?” Power Outage asked quietly.

“The power to manipulate plants isn’t my only ability,” Dipper explained. He forced Power Outage’s body to the ground, keeping one hand on her, as he picked up a nearby rock. He lifted up the villain’s shirt, revealing her transformation stone. “Now, I believe it’s time for you to give back what you stole.” Dipper brought the rock down on the transformation stone. A sharp crack and painful scream filled the otherwise silent night. Power Outage’s transformation wore off, and Dipper grew a handful of vines around her unconscious body to keep her captured, until the police arrived.

When Dipper noticed the previously unconscious Illuminator begin to move, he rushed over to him.

“Are you alright?” Dipper asked, trying to help the hero to his feet.

“I’m fine, I think…” The Illuminator mumbled and shook his head. “Where did Power Outage run off to?”

“She’s over there,” Dipper pointed to the tied up body of Power Outage.

“You… defeated her?” The Illuminator blinked a couple of times, clearly confused.

“She underestimated me,” Dipper smirked.

“I’m… impressed,” The Illuminator gave Dipper a surprised smile. “I think I might have underestimated you too.”

“That’s alright, I forgive you,” Dipper laughed. The Illuminator’s smile grew, but then it faltered.

“I, um, just remembered that I have other things I have to do,” The Illuminator explained, turning around to leave, but Dipper grabbed him by the arm.

“Wait,” Dipper said, a forlorn expression appeared on his face. “Before you go… I wanted to give you a Christmas present… But I didn’t know what you wanted, or if I should even get you one, so I ended up not getting you anything…”

“Oh, that’s fine, Pine Tree,” The Illuminator assured him with a gentle smile. “You don’t have to get me anything.”

“No, but I want to give you something,” Dipper insisted. “To show you my appreciation for training me, and for trying to be a better person… so…” Dipper took a couple of steps back and began using his powers. A small bush began to grow between them, and soon tiny dark pink rose buds began to bloom forth, and then began to open. Dipper picked the flowers, carefully avoiding the thorns, and handed them to The Illuminator. “It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing, right?” Dipper gave an awkward smile, hoping The Illuminator wouldn’t be offended by the gift.

The Illuminator stared at the flowers in his hand, seemingly surprised. Finally, he turned to Dipper, and his eyes seemed to be sparkling with unshed tears.

“Thank you,” The Illuminator said. “This is… This is actually the first Christmas present I’ve ever gotten.”

“What? Oh, right,” Dipper hit his head in realization. “Sorry! I just remembered something! I have to go, now!”

And with that, the young Melior left in a hurry.

 

Dipper was exhausted when he came home. He opened the front door, locked it behind him, and walked to the living room. He was surprised when he saw that Bill wasn’t lying on the couch. Just then, a loud sound came from the bathroom, and the door slammed open, Bill bolting out from the bathroom. The older man froze when he saw Dipper.

“What were you…?” Dipper trailed off and pointed to the bathroom, indicating that he wanted to know what Bill did in there.

“I was just… going to the bathroom… for a couple of hours…” Bill replied nervously. Dipper’s face flushed as he imagined what Bill had been doing in there for those hours. “Did you go out to get some coffee?” Bill nodded at the paper cup in Dipper’s hand.

“Actually, no,” Dipper mumbled. “Uh, you see, since I didn’t know you were gonna celebrate Christmas with me and Mabel, I didn’t really get you a present… I wanted to get you something, but, well, all the stores are closed, so all I could get you was this milkshake,” Dipper handed Bill the cup. “I know it’s not an amazing gift, but I remembered that you once said you loved banana and chocolate milkshakes, so…”

“Thank you,” Bill gave Dipper a sincere smile. “This is… I think this might be my best Christmas ever.”

“Well, it’s not like there’s a lot of competition,” Dipper shrugged and began walking to his room.

“Dipper, seriously; thank you,” Bill said again.

Dipper turned his head and gave Bill a smile. “You’re welcome.”

 

The next morning, Dipper awoke to squeals of joy from Mabel, while she shook her tired brother.

“Aaaahhh!!!” she screamed. “It’s Christmas, Dipper! CHRISTMAS!!!”

Dipper responded with a yawn. “I hear you, Mabel… Just…” he yawned again. “Need to wake up…”

“You can do that downstairs,” Mabel responded, dragging her brother by the arms, from the bed to the living room couch. Bill was already sitting there, awake and ready. Dipper noted that the TV was turned on, but muted. “I’ll get you two your first presents,” Mabel sung as she walked over to the Christmas tree, where the gifts where placed.

“Where did you get that tree, by the way?” Bill asked.

“Dipper grew it,” Mabel said, carrying two bright presents over to the boys.

“Wow, you got it to that size in a month?” Bill remarked, accepting the gift from the Mabel.

“Yeah, well, you know me, green fingers and all that,” Dipper shrugged, trying to sound nonchalant, also taking the gift Mabel handed him. Bill gave the gift tag a quick glance before he tore off the paper, revealing the contents; it was a small snow globe with two tiny cats inside it, one brown and the other yellow.

“Thank you, Mabel,” Bill smiled and gave Mabel a hug.

“You’re welcome, Bill,” Mabel smiled and returned the hug. “I didn’t want you to not get any presents today.”

“Actually, your brother gave me one,” Bill said.

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Bill nodded. “Yesterday, after you went to bed, he went out and bought me a milkshake.”

“That’s not really a Christmas present,” Mabel gave her brother a stern look.

“There was only fast food places opened!” Dipper argued. “If I’d had more time, I could’ve gotten him something better.”

“You didn’t have to, Porcupine~” Bill teased Dipper. “Being with you is the only present I could ever want~”

“Shut up,” Dipper grumbled and began unpacking his present. It was a book on Japanese yokai, called ‘Yokai Among Us’. “No way, I’ve wanted something this book for so long!”

“Did you check the tag?” Mabel asked with a small smile. Dipper picked up the tag and read out loud:

“’To Porcupine, From Bill♥’,” Dipper frowned, but relented with a sigh. “Thank you, Bill.”

“Aw, come on!” Mabel exclaimed. “Aren’t you gonna hug him?”

“Mabel!” Dipper hissed at his sister, but he still walked over to Bill and gave him a short hug.

“Ohoho, boys,” Mabel giggled. Dipper looked over at her, to see her pointing upwards. Dipper looked up and realized that he and Bill were standing right under a piece of mistletoe.

“Oh, come on!” Dipper groaned.

“Well, aren’t you gonna kiss?” Mabel giggled.

“No, Mabel, we’re not,” Dipper insisted.

“I don’t know, Porcupine,” Bill smirked. “I’ve heard refusing to kiss under mistletoe is bad luck. And I don’t know about you, but I’m not too keen on-“ Bill was interrupted when Dipper gave him a quick peck on the mouth.

“There, done,” Dipper quickly walked back over to the couch and sat down. Bill seemed stunned for a moment, until his smirk returned full-force.

“You know, Porcupine, it didn’t have to be on the lips~”

Dipper let out a frustrated groan and laid his head on the coffee table.

“Hey, what’s that on the news?” Mabel asked, turning up the volume on the TV.

“And so, the mysterious blackout last night, can be attributed to this Melior,” the news anchor said as a picture of a woman appeared in the corner of the TV. “Police has identified the woman as ‘Dorothe Snider’, aka ‘Blithe Durant’, aka ‘Power Outage’, birth name ‘Olivia Blythe’. Police found Ms. Snider, unconscious at the power plant, tied up in vines and with her transformation stone broken. According to Colonel Corduroy, who refused a full interview, Ms. Snider will be sent to a facility more capable of handling her powers, once she recovers from her injuries.”

“A facility?” Dipper frowned. “What kind of facility?”

“… A Melior Institute,” Bill whispered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it:D On another note, my english teacher wanted to read one of my fanfics, so I linked her to Cipher and Calisto. I don't know her exact opinion on it yet, but she seemed to really like the concept, as she now wants to take me to a museum that has a sculpture of Cupid and Psyche, so there's that. Actually, she wants to talk with me about it tomorrow, and has even said that, that fanfic can count for a lot of my english curriculum this year
> 
> Oh, and remember, if you want to, please leave a comment! I always appreciate that:3


	7. Episode 6: New Years Resolutions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short chapter where Pine Tree and The Illuminator celebrate New Years and talk about their individual resolutions for the next year.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, a very short chapter today. This is more of a... I guess we can call it an interlude. Enjoy!

Dipper was in the middle of sweeping the floor in the flower shop, when Bill entered through the door, the telltale ringing of the bell alerting Dipper to his presence.

“Hi Bill,” Dipper greeted the other man casually. “We haven’t gotten any other orders while you were out, so I’m closing the shop for today.”

“Isn’t it a little early?” Bill pointed at the clock, hanging on the wall, which showed the time was only three thirty.

“Well, New Years Eve isn’t really a busy time,” Dipper shrugged and put the broom away.

“Actually, before I entered, I was approached by someone,” Bill said and took out a crumbled note from his pocket. “They seemed to be in a hurry, and they wanted to place an order.”

Dipper took the small piece of paper and read it silently; it was an order for a bouquet of lisianthus, as well as an address that Dipper didn’t recognize.

“Well, I guess it’s up to you,” Dipper handed the note back to Bill. “If you’re up for a last-minute delivery, I’ll prepare the bouquet.”

“Tha- I mean, sure,” Bill smiled brightly. “I can handle one last delivery for the day.”

 

At around half past eleven pm, Dipper transformed into Pine Tree, and left the apartment. He and The Illuminator had previously decided to meet up at New Years, hoping to combat the wave of vandalism and theft that usually happened when the clock struck twelve on the 31st of December.

Dipper arrived on the museum’s rooftop, which had become his and The Illuminator’s usual meeting spot, to find a bottle of champagne, along with two flutes, placed on a small table. The Illuminator was standing beside the table, arms behind the back.

“I don’t think we’re gonna be much use to the city if we get drunk,” Dipper joked, nodding at the champagne bottle.

“I think we’ll manage,” The Illuminator laughed. “Besides, I think we deserve to celebrate the new year too.”

The Illuminator moved his hands from behind his back, revealing a familiar bouquet of lisianthus.

“For you,” he said and gave them to Dipper. “I regretted not getting you a Christmas present, especially since you got me one. I know flowers aren’t really an amazing gift for you, since you can just grow some, but I didn’t know what else to give you.”

“Thanks,” Dipper said and took the bouquet. He examined it closely, and there was no doubt about it; it was the bouquet that Bill had delivered. “Uh, where did you get this bouquet, by the way?”

“Oh, there’s this small flower shop a couple blocks from where I live,” The Illuminator explained. “I discovered it a while ago.”

“Well, they’re beautiful,” Dipper smiled and hugged the bouquet closer. “I love them.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” The Illuminator said and poured the champagne. He handed one of the flutes to Dipper and the two Meliors sat down on the edge of the roof.

“So, do you do New Year resolutions?” Dipper asked, gently placing the bouquet on down, not wanting to squish the flowers.

“Hmm, not really, but I’ve been thinking about doing one this year,” The Illuminator took a small sip of champagne.

“Really? What is it?”

“… I want you to tell me yours first,” The Illuminator responded after a small pause.

“Mine’s not really anything special,” Dipper shrugged, sipping the champagne. “I want to improve my skills, so I can continue protecting the city… I guess that’s about it.”

“That’s a pretty good one,” The Illuminator nodded.

“What’s yours?”

“Well… I’ve… met someone,” The Illuminator said, his voice barely audible. “I like him a lot, might even love him.”

Dipper stared at The Illuminator, a small blush appearing on his cheeks. Could The Illuminator be talking about him?

“Do I… know this someone?” Dipper asked, a small smile spreading on his mouth.

“I don’t think so,” The Illuminator said. That sentence along felt like a punch in the gut, but Dipper tried his best not to show it. “Anyway, my resolution is to tell him how I feel.”

“Well,” Dipper swallowed. “I’m sure he’ll happy to hear that.”

“Maybe,” The Illuminator sighed. “I don’t think he likes me though, and I don’t blame him.”

“Why would you think that? You’re a great guy!”

“Thanks, but… he doesn’t seem to think so,” The Illuminator paused before continuing. “Maybe you could help me? What would someone need to do to sweep you off your feet?”

“Uh, well,” Dipper fumbled a bit with his words, finding the entire situation embarrassing. “I guess I would want to be treated special, like I really matter to someone. But I think what I would want most of all, is honesty.”

“Honesty?”

“Yeah,” Dipper smiled to himself and closed his eyes. “I think that’s the most crucial part; if you’re completely honest about who you are, I don’t see how he could reject you. But if he does reject the honest you, then he doesn’t deserve you.”

“Hmm, I’ll consider your advice,” The Illuminator said and raised his glass. “For our first year as partners?”

Dipper nodded and clinked the glasses together. The two Meliors drank the champagne that remained in their flutes, before they went out on patrol, ignorant of all the events that would transpire in the approaching year.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it:3 Next week is going to be pretty crowded for me, so I don't know when I'll be able to start on the next chapter (Which will take place on Valentine's Day, and will finally feature Mabel's debut as a hero), since I'm going on a trip with my class tomorrow and won't be back until the next day, and I'll be visiting my mother thursday and friday, maybe longer.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter! Please leave a comment if you want to:3


	8. Episode 7: Valentine's Confessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper has to make a very special flower delivery, and Mabel finally makes her debut as a hero.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT!!! I've been on vacation, so I haven't had a chance to write on my main computer, where I keep all my notes for my fics (yes I have notes for my fics... A LOT OF NOTES), but on the bright side, I was able to bring my laptop, an began work on another fic (not finished yet, but I hope to upload it soon:3).

Valentine’s Day was undoubtedly the busiest day of the entire year, for a flower shop. Every fifth minute, someone would walk in to buy a bouquet, and every fifteenth minute, the phone would ring with an order.

Dipper was beginning to feel the exhaustion of using his powers so much, but at least as the evening rolled by, the number of customers began to dwindle.

At around five pm, Bill entered through the door, having finished the latest deliveries.

“Alright, did we get any more orders while I was gone?” Bill asked.

“No, I think that’s the last ones,” Mabel said, while putting money into the cash register. Dipper was sitting reverse on a chair, resting his chin on the backrest.

“Oh, I need to give you something,” Bill fished a white envelope out of his pocket and handed it to Dipper. “Someone came up to me while, I was making my deliveries, and gave me this; said he was in a hurry.”

Dipper’s eyes practically lit up at that; that was exactly what had happened when The Illuminator had placed an order. Could this be from him? Dipper looked at the envelope; it was addressed to the flower shop. He opened it, and saw that it was filled with a hundred dollar bill and as well as a letter. Dipper took the letter out and skimmed the text. It was an order for a bouquet of two dozen jonquils, a rather odd type of flower for Valentine’s Day, especially considering that jonquils were usually sold in spring, not winter. Other than that, there was only an address and the time “seven pm” written on the paper.

“Well, it was paid ahead,” Dipper shrugged. He realized that if this bouquet was ordered by The Illuminator, it must be for his unknown love. The hero hadn’t mentioned the subject much since it had first been brought up, so Dipper had no idea if The Illuminator had succeeded in winning this person’s heart. Maybe they were already together, maybe The Illuminator had waited for this very day to confess his love. Either way, Dipper was determined to make this bouquet perfect, wanting to help his friend in any way he could, even if he felt a twinge of jealousy at the thought of The Illuminator being with anyone but Dipper.

“Uh, Dipper, are you sure we should go through with this?” Mabel asked, her face filled with worry.

“It’s not like we can just keep the money and not deliver the flowers,” Dipper argued.

“Oh, one more thing,” Bill interjected, a small smirk on his lips. “I have a hot date tonight, so I won’t be able to make the delivery.”

“You have a hot date?” Dipper scoffed. “With your right hand and a virus-infested website?”

“Oh, there’s no need to get jealous, Porcupine~” Bill teased. “You know you’re the only one for me~”

“Wait, you can’t do the delivery?” Mabel asked in a worried tone.

“Don’t worry, Mabel,” Dipper gave his sister a reassuring pat on the arm. “The address is only a couple blocks away; I’ll do the delivery.”

“That’s exactly why I’m worried!” Mabel shouted. “Dipper, since we got here, you’ve already been attacked twice! One of those times, you even got kidnapped by a villain!”

“Mabel, I’ll be fine,” Dipper insisted. “I can take care of myself.”

“Yeah, Boss, have some faith in him,” Bill added.

“Urgh, fine,” Mabel groaned. “But I’m not happy about it.”

“Welp, I’m off,” Bill announced, walking towards the door. “I’ve got a lot of planning before my date tonight.”

“Don’t abuse your hand too much,” Dipper snickered.

“Of course not; I’ll be saving all my passion for us, Porcupine~”

 

As the clock neared half past six pm, Dipper prepared the jonquil bouquet and got ready to leave.

“Are you sure you’re going to be alright?” Mabel asked her brother.

“I told you; last time we had a deliver ordered through a note, it was The Illuminator,” Dipper explained. “This one’s probably too. Anyway, I’ll text you when I’ve made the deliver. If you don’t hear from me by half past seven, something’s wrong.”

“Alright,” Mabel nodded and gave Dipper a hug. “Be careful.”

“I will,” Dipper hugged his sister back and left the store.

It only took around twenty minutes for Dipper to find the right address, but when he arrived, he thought he might have made a mistake; the address had led him to an old, decrepit building, with boarded up windows, and bricks that looked like they were about to fall out of place.

Dipper took a couple of cautious steps towards the front door, and gave it a gentle knock. The door creaked open slowly, as if someone was opening it, but when Dipper walked inside, he couldn’t spot anyone.

In front of Dipper was an empty, long corridor, lit only by multiples candles, the floor covered in a trail of red rose petals.

“Hello?” Dipper called out, but he didn’t get an answer. Walking inside, and closing the door behind him, Dipper decided to follow the trail of rose petals and candle light. The trail led him up many stairs until he reached the highest floor. Then the rose petals stopped in front of a door. Dipper knocked on the door, and a muffled voice responded:

“Come in.”

Dipper opened the door, entering the room, which turned out to be an enormous greenhouse, minus the plants. The glass walls and ceiling seemed to have been washed recently; they were so clear that you could easily see the night sky. In the middle of the room stood a round table, decorated with a white tablecloth, as well as dinnerware. Two chairs that looked almost antique were placed on opposite sides of the table. But Dipper let out a small gasp when he saw the person who had invited him in.

“The Illuminator!” he exclaimed. Dipper attempted to look as surprised as possible; after all, he wasn’t supposed to know that The Illuminator had made the original order. “You ordered these flowers?”

“I did,” The Illuminator smiled at Dipper and stepped closer to him, until there was less than an arm’s reach between them. “I’m glad you were able to deliver them.”

“Me too,” Dipper smiled back, only to blush once he realized what he had said. “I m-mean, it’s really nice t-to see you again! I-It’s been a while.”

“It has,” The Illuminator’s smile grew.

Dipper swore the room was getting warmer, but he was probably just imagining it. He handed the bouquet over to the hero.

“Well, here you go,” Dipper swallowed audibly. “Uh, good luck with your, um, date, or whatever.”

“Thank you,” The Illuminator looked intensely at Dipper. “Although, I don’t think I’ll need it.” The Illuminator offered the bouquet to Dipper.

“Uh, my shop don’t really have a refund policy,” Dipper said, staring at the flowers. “I could probably arrange something, but I don’t have any cash on me, so-“ Dipper was cut off by the sound of The Illuminator laughing.

“They’re for you,” The Illuminator chuckled.

“M-me?” Dipper stuttered, his face flushing once again. How was this happening? At what point doing their two, count them, two encounter (that The Illuminator knew of), had The Illuminator looked at Dipper and thought ‘Yeah, I wanna date this guy’?

“Yes,” The Illuminator nodded. “Do you see any other gorgeous brunets around?”

Dipper squeaked, his face turning much redder than before. He had no idea how to respond to this. What do you say when your crush tells you, you’re gorgeous?

“So, what do you say?” The Illuminator asked. Dipper let out another squeak, wondering for a moment if The Illuminator could read his thoughts. “Do you wanna give me a chance, or…?” The hero trailed off, awaiting Dipper’s response.

Dipper nodded vigorously, unable to find his voice. The Illuminator pulled out a chair and gestured for Dipper to sit down. Dipper complied, and The Illuminator pushed the chair back in place, before walking over to a counter, taking a platter, and returning to the table.

“We’ll be having steak tonight,” he said, serving the both of them and returning the platter to the counter, where he fetched a glass bottle filled with cold water, and poured the two glasses. “I wanted to serve wine, but I couldn’t afford it.”

“That’s okay,” Dipper quickly assured him, taking his cell phone out, and sending his sister a short message, assuring that he was okay, but that he wouldn’t be home until later. “I don’t mind water…”

The two began eating in silence. After a couple of minutes, Dipper began fidgeting in his seating, trying to think of something to talk about, but he had no idea what to say. He usually didn’t have this problem; under normal circumstances, conversation between him and The Illuminator flowed naturally, but now, in the current romantic context, Dipper was too nervous to say a thing.

“You’re… awfully quiet,” The Illuminator spoke up between bites.

“Yeah, well,” Dipper offered a nervous laughter and a small shrug. “I’m just sitting here, wondering why this happened to me…”

“Oh, I see,” The Illuminator frowned and looked down. “You know, you didn’t have to have dinner with me; you could have just told me no.”

“What? No, no!” Dipper replied quickly. “I didn’t mean it like that! Urgh, I shouldn’t have phrased it like that.” Dipper gave himself a smack on the forehead. “I just meant, why do you want to go on a date with me? I’m not exactly a-“

“Don’t finish that sentence,” The Illuminator interrupted. He gently took Dipper’s left hand in his, carefully avoided cutting Dipper on one of the sharp claws. “I know we’ve only met twice,” The Illuminator paused to let out a small sigh. “But I feel a… connection to you, something I’ve never felt before. You were the first person I’ve met, in a long time, who didn’t hate or fear me.”

“Actually, I was a bit intimidated the first time I saw you,” Dipper admitted.

“But that didn’t stop you from standing up to me,” The Illuminator added. “And you didn’t run away. That’s what most people do when they see me. Either that, or they take out their phones and try to take a picture of me… But you… You stood your ground. And, I know this probably sounds stupid, but you inspired me; inspired me to be a better person.”

Dipper blinked at The Illuminator a couple of times, shocked at the Melior’s confession. When The Illuminator made to remove his hands, Dipper placed his right hand on top The Illuminator’s.

“I feel the same way,” Dipper whispered. “A-about that connection, I mean!” he quickly added. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you…”

Dipper noticed that The Illuminator was staring at him, leaning in closer. Dipper swallowed nervously, and leaned towards The Illuminator. Dipper tried his best to keep his breathing under control, as their mouths got closer and closer, until…

A sudden, violent wind slammed against the glass walls in the room, creating a powerful, thunder-like sound.

“What was that?” Dipper exclaimed, pulling away from The Illuminator on reflex.

“A sudden weather change…” The Illuminator frowned. “Don’t quote me on this, but I think this might be the work of a Melior.” The hero shot up from his chair, took Dipper by the hand and led him to the door. “If the wind gets stronger, it could break the glass, or worse, destroy parts of the building. If you take the stairs down, you’ll get to the basement; you should be safe there until I get back.”

“Where are you going?” Dipper asked.

“I’m gonna see what’s happening,” The Illuminator urged Dipper through the door, before opening a glass door on the other side of the room, and leaving through it.

Dipper waited all but two seconds before he transformed, and left through the same door The Illuminator had.

 

It didn’t take Dipper long to catch up on The Illuminator, as the two heroes ran across the rooftops to find the source of the mysterious weather.

“Hey there!” Dipper called out, trying to talk over the overpowering wind. “Fancy seeing you here!”

“Right back at ya!” The Illuminator responded with a small smile. “I’d have thought that you’d be out on a date tonight!”

“I was!” Dipper laughed. “But protecting this city is still my top priority!”

Their conversation was interrupted by a powerful thunder strike, crashing down a couple of blocks away from them, close enough to make the two heroes stop in their tracks. After the nearly deafening sound, the wind had stopped, and everything was silent. Above their heads, however, the previously clear sky was rapidly getting covered in dark clouds.

“I hope this isn’t an electrical storm,” Dipper said to himself, as he and The Illuminator charged ahead.

“Don’t worry, Pine Tree; lightning never strikes the same place twice,” The Illuminator joked, as the two heroes arrived.

The street was burned and black where the lightning had struck, and in the middle stood a young man, possibly in his late twenties. Judging from his glowing, orange eyes, he was undoubtedly a Melior, and a transformed Melior at that, but he was wearing plain, casual clothes, not a suit. The man was breathing heavily, and seemed angry.

“Excuse me,” Dipper began, carefully approaching the unknown Melior. “But are you the one who created this weather? Is something wro-“ A powerful gust of wind hit Dipper and slammed him into a wall, interrupting his sentence.

“Hey!” The Illuminator yelled angrily. “What did you do that for?!”

A stream of angry tears began to fall from the man’s face, as he summoned a lightning bolt that hit The Illuminator, who hadn’t anticipated it, directly.

“Illuminator!” Dipper shouted and hurried over to his mentor.

“’m fine,” The Illuminator mumbled, struggling to stand up.

 

Mabel read over her brother’s message again: ‘Evrythins fin be hom latr by’. Dipper only wrote like that when he was in a hurry, but what he could be in a hurry for, Mabel didn’t know.

She sighed and opened her laptop, wanting to see if some new videos had been uploaded. She was surprised to find that a blogger she followed was currently streaming a video. She clicked on the stream and was taken to a live feed of Pine Tree and The Illuminator fighting someone; the poor quality on the feed and shaky cam made it clear that it was being recorded on someone’s phone.

Mabel frowned, this did explain why Dipper had sent that text, it looked like he and The Illuminator were struggling; The Illuminator’s somewhat burned costume suggested that he had been hit, his reflexes seemed slower than normal, and he generally seemed to be in pain. Meanwhile, Dipper couldn’t catch a break to grow anything.

Mabel’s gaze turned to her closet; she still had the costume, she made for herself. She knew what the right thing to do was, but for some reason, she couldn’t make herself get up from her chair, walk to the closet, and put on her suit. She was scared; what if she messed up? What if she got herself killed? What if she got someone else killed? What if her identity was revealed again, and she and Dipper were forced to move again?

She turned back to the computer screen; the unknown man had summoned a blizzard, which Dipper struggled against, followed up by a giant icicle being flung towards him. Mabel gasped in horror, but her brother dodged it in time. That had been too close; Dipper needed help, and that help was Mabel.

 

Mabel ran as fast as she could, transformed and dressed in her suit; a pink, sleeveless, high neck top with a shooting star-sigil on it, similar to the design on one of her old childhood sweaters, a purple miniskirt, knee-high white boots, white gloves, and a purple domino mask. In Mabel’s ‘form, her brown eyes had turned a hot pink, her face was thinner, and her previously wavy brown hair was straight with streaks of blue, pink, purple, and yellow in it.

When Mabel arrived at the scene of the battle, Dipper, or Pine Tree, had his legs frozen from his feet to his knees, stuck to the ground. The Illuminator had seemingly disappeared.

Mabel shot one of her ‘star bolts’, as she had chosen to call them, at the villain; the small ball of concentrated light exploding when it hit, sending the villain flying.

Mabel hurried over to her brother to see if he was alright.

“How’s it going, Pine Tree?” Mabel asked him cheekily.

“Pretty good,” Dipper shrugged.

“I wouldn’t say that; your partner left you to a villain’s mercy,” Mabel pointed at Dipper’s ice-incased feet.

“I didn’t leave him,” The Illuminator suddenly appeared beside them. “I was using my invisibility, hoping to take him by surprise.”

“And if Pine Tree just happened to get hurt, you wouldn’t care?” Mabel argued, folding her arms across her chest.

“How dare you?” The Illuminator said indignantly. “Who do you even think you are?”

Mabel paused at that, since she hadn’t thought of an alias.

“Let me guess; no alias?” The Illuminator sighed. Mabel nodded, her cheeks flushed slightly in embarrassment. “Alright, how about, Shooting Star?”

“Yeah, that’ll-“ Mabel was interrupted, as the group was hit by another powerful gust of wind. Mabel turned to the villain. “Illuminator!” Mabel yelled. “You stay here and thaw out Pine Tree; I’m taking care of ‘The Weatherman’!”

Mabel shot another star bolt at the villain, the light unaffected by the wind. The villain dodged, but in doing so, he was forced to stop summoning the wind. Mabel began to advance on him, and the villain fled. Mabel chased after him through the streets, until she lost sight of him. She heard a noise, like someone running on a metallic surface, nearby, and followed it, catching sight of the villain, running up a fire escape to the rooftop. Mabel followed him up the fire escape, confident that he was now as good as caught.

“You have nowhere left to hide!” Mabel told the villain.

“I’m not trying to hide!” the man laughed. He summoned a bolt of lightning, which hit the fire escape, destroying it and trapping them both on the roof.

“Why are you doing this?” Mabel asked him.

“You’re a Melior,” the man stated. “Either you already know, or you’ve been lucky enough not to.”

“What?” Mabel asked, confused.

“Rejection,” the man replied. “I proposed to my girlfriend today; we met on Valentine’s Day five years ago. I wanted to show her what I really am; a Melior. I did, I showed her my transformation stone, and do you know what she said?” Tears began to form in the man’s eyes. “She said no! She said that she didn’t want her kids to be freaks! She called me a freak! She left me…” the man took a deep breath. “If my girlfriend, who loved me for five years, can turn her back on me, just because I’m Melior, then what hope is there?”

“What are you saying?” Mabel asked, her voice low and careful.

“Ordinary people are never going to accept us!” the man said. “So what’s the point?”

“The point is to do the right thing,” Mabel replied. “People can be real jerks, not just to Meliors, but just in general. That doesn’t mean we should give up hope on them. I think every Melior goes through something similar to what you did tonight, and after that, they decide what path to take. It isn’t easy; the most important choices we face are also the hardest… But it’s not too late for you; you can still change your decision!”

“I don’t care about other people,” the man snarled. “I don’t even care about Meliors! I JUST WANT EVERYTHING TO DIE!!!” The man charged towards Mabel, grabbed her, and lifted the two off the ground, high into the air. Mabel was about to hit him with another star bolt, when he said; “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. If you hit me with that, I’ll most likely drop you.” To demonstrate his point, he let go of Mabel for a brief moment.

“Look,” Mabel gasped, a nearly paralyzing fear began to fill her mind, as she was lifted higher and higher up. “We can talk about this, or maybe you wanna see a professional? That’d probably be a good idea!”

“Do you know why I took you up here?” the man asked. “So that you’d at least get a nice view, before you die.”

Mabel felt the man’s arms let go of her, followed by the sensation of falling; first she felt the air around her, the sound of wind in her ears, the rush in her stomach from the high velocity. Then, it all stopped. Suddenly, she didn’t feel like she was falling, the ground didn’t even seem to get closer. And it was in that moment that Mabel realized she was flying, all by herself! The first thought in her mind, aside from how awesome flying was, was how she had never discovered this ability before. But then it hit her that she hadn’t exactly been in any ‘falling to her doom’ scenarios before.

Mabel soared back up, and shot three star bolts at the man. He dodged them all, but didn’t see Mabel’s incoming fist, hitting him square in the jaw. Mabel proceeded to headbutt the guy, knocking him unconscious, and throwing him over the shoulder, before flying back to Dipper and The Illuminator.

 

Dipper thought it had taken much too long to thaw his legs out, but The Illuminator had insisted that the procedure had to be slow, otherwise he could end up burning Dipper’s legs off. Finally, Dipper was out, stretching his legs to get the blood flowing.

“Hey guys!” Mabel shouted, ascending from the sky and dropping the unconscious villain’s body on the ground.

“Since when could you fly?” Dipper asked his sister.

“I dunno,” Mabel shrugged and walked over to Dipper. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Dipper assured her, turning his head towards The Illuminator, who had a look of realization on his face, followed by a small smile. “What are you smiling at?”

“Nothing,” The Illuminator shook his head, smile still in place. “I’m getting the impression you two know each other?”

“Is it that obvious?” Mabel giggled and put an arm around Dipper’s shoulder.

“It’s pretty obvious that you’re very close,” The Illuminator nodded. He walked over to the unconscious villain, lifted up his shirt, revealing the transformation stone, and smashed it with his foot. “You wanna tie this guy up so we can go home?”

“Sure thing,” Dipper said and summoned some thick vines, which he wrapped around the guy.

“Yeah, I think we all want to go home right about now,” Mabel sighed and stretched lazily.

“Actually, I have some stuff I need to take care of,” Dipper told his sister.

“What stuff?”

“I’ll tell you later,” Dipper gave Mabel a brief hug before taking off. “Bye!” he shouted, running back, as fast as he could, to The Illuminator’s home; he had to get there before The Illuminator returned. He climbed in through the glass door, noting that parts of the greenhouse had been destroyed by the storm, and transformed back into civilian form. However, he didn’t manage to reach the door on the other side of the room, before he heard The Illuminator returning.

“What are you doing here?” The Illuminator asked as he entered the room.

“Uh, I, uh” Dipper stuttered, trying to think of an excuse. “I wanted to see if you were back yet, so I…”

“You shouldn’t have done that,” The Illuminator sighed and walked to the table, which had been toppled over during the storm; the flower vase was lying broken on the floor, water and jonquils scattered all over. “I guess our date was a fiasco.”

“Don’t say that,” Dipper approached the hero. “You had to go out there and save the day; you can’t help that.”

“Still ruined everything,” The Illuminator mumbled, picking up one of the flowers.

“Hey, the date’s not over yet,” Dipper said, smiling as he grabbed The Illuminator’s arm. “You still haven’t taken home. After all, it’s late now, and there are bound to be a lot of criminals just waiting for a defenseless victim, like me.”

“Well,” The Illuminator chuckled and placed the flower in Dipper’s hair. “I wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to you.” The Illuminator picked Dipper up, as easily as ever, holding him close as they exited the greenhouse, back out into the night.

It only took about ten minutes before the pair arrived at the flower shop. The Illuminator placed Dipper carefully on the ground, followed by Dipper gently placing his hands in The Illuminator’s.

“Thanks for tonight,” Dipper said. “I know it didn’t turn out like you wanted, but we can always try again.” The Illuminator paused for a moment before he replied.

“You know,” he began. “A friend of mine said, that I should be honest with you, show you who I really am… Well, this is it.”

“What do you mean?” Dipper frowned.

“I mean that I’ve spend most of my life in my ‘form,” The Illuminator explained. “My ‘form is who I really am, whereas my civilian form is my persona; my secret identity. So, this is what you’re getting; a giant, gangling monster.”

“Are you trying to scare me off?” Dipper laughed. “You’re gonna have to try harder than that. Now, maybe if your head was a giant octopus…”

“You’re something else,” The Illuminator gave Dipper a small smile, before his face turned serious again. “Still, if we get together, we can’t go to restaurants or stroll in the city…”

“I’m not much of a social type anyway,” Dipper shrugged. “I’d be more than happy to just eat takeout at home and watch a movie on the TV.”

“So, that’s it? We’re… dating? Officially?”

“Guess so,” Dipper blushed. He looked into The Illuminator’s eyes; the one golden eye seemed to gleam in the dark, while the black one held an almost beautiful depth to it, like gazing into a black hole.

“Just kiss already!” Dipper turned around and saw that his sister was looking at them from her bedroom window.

“Mabel!” Dipper screeched in embarrassment.

“Just saying what you’re both thinking!” Mabel yelled back and closed her window.

Dipper turned back to The Illuminator, who seemed to have gotten closer to Dipper, but didn’t make any further moves.

Dipper licked his lips, which seemed awfully dry all of a sudden. He brought his lips closer to The Illuminator’s, ever so slightly, almost as if he feared the moment their mouths would meet. Finally, Dipper managed to close the gap between them, the two sharing a long, but chaste kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed! And yay! Finally those two dorks are together!... for now...
> 
> Please leave a comment, if you want to; I love to receive commentsX3


	9. Episode 8: Sly as a Fox

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper encounters a new villain, and finds out that Bill cares a lot more about him, than he though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! New Chapter!... But a really short one... This chapter was originally going to be number 9, but I decided to switch the places of this chapter and the next, because I thought it would flow better. Maybe it won't? Who knows?

Dipper had been dating The Illuminator for about a week, and while he was perfectly happy in their relationship, it hadn’t taken long before people noticed that the most infamous anti-hero in the city was dating someone.

Dipper was walking in the streets; it was Sunday, so the flower shop was closed, and Dipper was just enjoying a nice walk on a chilly, late-winter noon. He knew, however, that his peaceful walk was about to be disturbed, when he heard someone whisper: “Hey, isn’t that him?”

Soon, a woman, closely followed by a young girl taking notes, began following Dipper, drawing closer to him.

“Excuse me,” the woman said, “Excuse me, Mr. Pines?” Dipper let out a sigh and continued walking, picking up the pace. “I’m Sharon Bell, reporter from the magazine ‘Tights and Masks’, the only magazine dedicated to tell the stories of Melior heroes and villains.”

“Then why are you bothering me?” Dipper groaned.

“Is it true that you have been ‘having affairs’ with the infamous Illuminator?” Ms. Bell asked, putting strong emphasis on affairs.

“No comments,” Dipper said.

“I understand why you might be embarrassed of it,” Ms. Bell laughed with mirth. “I’m sure there must be some… compensation for being with him. Many of our readers think that The Illuminator is a… big man, but is he still that without his transformation? Or do you prefer him as he is?”

“No comments,” Dipper almost snarled, his face flushed red. Dipper tried his best to keep his anger and annoyance at these people in check, knowing that any words he said would be twisted into whatever they needed for their narrative.

“Are you scared of being with a Melior?” Ms. Bell asked, her previously light tone turning dark. “Not just because of The Illuminator’s enemies who might hurt you to get to him, but of the hero himself. Meliors are typically predisposed to violence, and The Illuminator is clearly no exception. Are you afraid of what The Illuminator might do to you?”

“That’s it!” Dipper shouted and began to run, hearing the two reporters chase after him. Due to his training, Dipper was able to get further away from them, before turning a corner, and dashing into the nearest building and hiding behind a wall. He watched as the two reporters continued to run down the street, and let out a sigh of relief.

“Porcupine?” Dipper looked up and saw Bill standing in front of him, a look of surprise that quickly morphed into his trademark smirk. “Fancy meeting you here~”

“Are you ever gonna stop flirting with me?” Dipper groaned. “I have a boyfriend now.”

“Don’t worry, I totally respect that,” Bill held up his left hand in a sign of defeat, Dipper noticed Bill’s right hand was clutching a bouquet of daffodils. “But teasing you is like second nature to me. Besides, if you and The Illuminator ever break up…”

“I doubt that’s going to happen,” Dipper argued. “And even if that does happen, I’m not suddenly going to fall into your arms.”

“Never say never~” Bill smirked. “If nothing, I’ll always be there to beat up The Illuminator, if he ever breaks your heart.”

“Now that I wouldn’t mind see,” Dipper smiled slightly, and Bill laughed before his expression turned serious.

“But seriously though, is everything alright with you and him?” Bill asked, his voice laced with concern. “Is he treating you right?”

“He’s a perfect gentleman,” Dipper replied, turning away from Bill and finally realizing where they were; a bank. “Say, what are you doing in a bank?”

“Putting some money into my account,” Bill responded and handed the bouquet over to Dipper.

“Bill, I work in a flower shop,” Dipper said deadpanned. “It’s gonna take a lot more than flowers to make me swoon.”

“I know, I just thought you deserved something pretty,” Bill took out one of the daffodils in the bouquet and put it in Dipper’s hair.

Suddenly, the front doors to the bank swung open, and a young woman, dressed in a white hakama, a red obi, both ends of the obi trailing down her figure like two tails, and a white mask with red linings and yellow eyes shaped like the head of a fox, long black hair reaching her waist. The woman marched in, followed by an army of twenty big, muscular men carrying guns.

“Please remain calm,” the woman said, her voice clear despite the mask. “Yes, this is a robbery, but I would refrain from calling the authorities… After all, you wouldn’t want my escorts to harm you, would you?”

The armed men began to spread out, herding people together into a big group, including Bill and Dipper.

“You may call me… Kitsune,” the woman said, and just like that Dipper was reminded about something he had read, in that book Bill gave him from Christmas. “Nobody has to get hurt, as long as you don’t try anything-“

Dipper ran out of the crowd and down a nearby corridor, dropping the bouquet on the ground, ignoring Bill yelling his name, and Kitsune ordering one of her men to chase him. He opened the first door he found, a bathroom, and hurried inside. He paused for a moment to see if the man Kitsune had sent after him came, but when he didn’t, confidence began to fill Dipper’s entire being.

Dipper transformed and snuck out of the bathroom, then grew some vines, which he then tied around his waist, and used to hoist himself to the ceiling, where he snuck back into the bank’s main area.

Just like Dipper as expected, the man that Kitsune had sent after him was there, holding what looked like a terrified Dipper, as well as a pistol aimed at the scared Dipper’s head.

“This is just what happens,” Kitsune shrugged and stepped closer to the fake Dipper. “We don’t need to escalate this situation… But on the other hand, I feel like I need to set an example…”

“Don’t hurt him!” Dipper’s gaze turned to the crowd, and he saw that Bill had been the one who shouted that. The usually cheerful and carefree blond looked absolutely terrified.

“Well…” Kitsune put a finger to her chin in contemplation. “I’m not completely heartless. As long as no one else tries anything, I’ll let him live-“

Dipper untied himself from his vine, and used it to hoist himself down, landing between Kitsune and the crowd.

“Play time’s over, Kitsune,” Dipper said.

“Pine Tree,” Kitsune acknowledged and signaled to the goon holding the fake Dipper. “If you try anything, he dies. Are you really willing to have innocent blood on your hands?”

“Pine Tree!” Dipper turned his head towards the sound, and spotted Bill, who looked like he was having a panic attack. “Stay where you are! It’s not worth it!”

Dipper turned back to Kitsune. “I’m calling your bluff,” Dipper declared, taking a single step forward, and all hell broke loose; Kitsune jumped back, signaling her goon, who proceeded to shoot the fake Dipper in the head and dropping the body to the floor, Dipper prepared to go after Kitsune, but was tackled to the ground by someone.

Dipper felt two hands wrapping around his neck, strangling him.

“How could you?” he heard Bill’s sobbing voice from behind. “HOW COULD YOU!?! You call yourself a hero!? He’s… he’s DEAD because of you!”

Dipper tried to speak, but the hands around his throat prevented it, so he used his hands to forcefully remove Bill’s, and quickly jumped to his feet, Bill following.

“It wasn’t real!” Dipper coughed, rubbing his sore neck. “It’s an illusion!” Dipper lifted his foot and stomped it into the fake Dipper, which turned into a cloud of smoke before disappearing completely. Bill looked stunned, but then angry again.

“How could you be sure?!” he shouted angrily. “What if it had been real? What if he…” His face turned fearful, and he began to breathe heavily.

Dipper was surprised, shocked even. He knew on some level that Bill cared about him, but he had no idea it was to that extent.

“I wouldn’t have taken that chance, if I wasn’t sure,” Dipper began to look around for Kitsune, but her and her goons seemed to have disappeared. “Her name is ‘Kitsune’; not only the Japanese word for fox, but also the name of a yokai. A kitsune is able to create illusions, even shape shift, and uses that power to trick people.”

Dipper noticed that the vault was open, just as two goons walked out of it. He dashed towards them, hitting his hand through them, and they both disappeared like the Dipper illusion. He opened the vault wider, but found that no one was inside it. He turned towards the crowd to address them.

“It looks like Kitsune got away,” he announced. “So I’ll be leaving now,” Dipper grew a vine, which he used as a rope, to climb out of a nearby open window. “Stay safe everyone!”

After getting outside, Dipper ducked into a nearby alleyway, and transformed back into civilian form. He decided to go back to the bank, to let Bill know that he was okay, but when he entered the building he discovered that he was already there, talking to Bill.

“What’s going on here?” Dipper exclaimed, walking to Bill and the other Dipper.

“Oh no,” the other Dipper looked worried and grabbed Bill’s arm. “That must be Kitsune!”

“Are you seriously trying to pretend you’re me?” Dipper looked deadpanned at the other Dipper, whom he was now convinced was Kitsune. “Are you trying to sneak some money out, or are you just trying to get away undetected?”

“Your mind trickery isn’t going to work on Bill,” the Kitsune-Dipper said with smirk. “He knows me too well~”

“He’s right,” Bill shrugged.

“Oh come on! Seriously?” Dipper exclaimed in frustration. “Okay, what do you think me and Bill’s relationship is?”

“Well, obviously we are dating,” Kitsune replied. “After all, he gave me flowers.”

“See?” Bill added.

“Bill, I’m gonna hit you, I swear to god,” Dipper threatened, and Bill’s trademark smirk appeared.

“Just kidding,” Bill grabbed Kitsune and threw her to the ground, pulling up the shirt to reveal a white, diamond-shaped transformation stone.

“No! Wait!” Kitsune cried out, but Dipper had already stomped on the stone, breaking it. Bill let go of the now unconscious Kitsune, whose transformation wore off, and turned to Dipper.

“How did you know about breaking the transformation stone?” Bill asked. Dipper froze up, and tried to think of something.

“Well, you know how Mabel likes reading up about Meliors,” Dipper shrugged, trying to come off as casual. “Sometimes, she tells me a couple of things. So, uh, you knew she was a fake, right?”

“Of course,” Bill laughed. “Do you really think, I’d ever believe that you’d hang on me like that?”

“Then why did play along like that?” Dipper asked angrily.

“Do I really need to explain?” Bill tilted his head, smirking teasingly. “I’d do anything to get a rise out of you~”

“Of course,” Dipper sighed and turned away. “Well, I’m heading back home now-“ he stopped when he felt arms around him. “Bill?”

“Be safe… okay?” Bill whispered, hugging Dipper closer. “I don’t know what I’d do, if something happened to you…”

“O…kay?” Dipper said awkwardly, walking away when Bill let go of him, but still feeling the other man’s eyes on him as he left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Kitsune was inspired by Lila/Volpina from Miraculous Ladybug, moreso her powers and concept than her character, because I loved the idea of Volpina, but I don't like Lila all that much (It's totally cool if you like her, I just don't)
> 
> Next episode will have more of Mabel, and will introduce Waddles! (You didn't think I was going to forget about him, did youX3)
> 
> Please leave a comment if you want to:3 And hopefully, next chapter will be longer


	10. Episode 9: Unfair Fair

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper and Mabel go to a fair, hoping to sell some plants there. Mabel finds the most wonderful pig in the world, and Dipper realizes how much his secret identity complicates his relationship with The Illuminator.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, new chapter! Sorry I've been neglecting this story^^; But hey, at least this chapter is decently long!

Dipper had finally finished placing snacks and drinks on the living room table, when Mabel arrived, in her form.

“Mabel,” Dipper gave his sister a weak glare. “You shouldn’t walk around in your form! What if The Illuminator was here?”

“Relax, Dip-Dop,” Mabel replied. “I just came down to say, I’m going out on patrol now.”

“Great,” Dipper gave her a thumbs up. “Hopefully, you won’t be needing me or The Illuminator.”

“Nah, I got this,” Mabel stole a can of Pitt soda, opened it, and took a swig of it. “By the by, did you tell The Illuminator that Pine Tree wouldn’t patrol tonight, or do I have to cover for you?”

“I told him I had some personal stuff to do,” Dipper responded opening his own can. “He seemed kinda… mad about it, though. Is it just me, or has The Illuminator seemed really angry with me lately? I mean, Pine Tree me.”

“I dunno,” Mabel shrugged and finished her soda. “Maybe he heard about what happened at the bank?”

“Why is everyone making such a big deal about it?” Dipper groaned. “I knew it was an illusion! It’s not like I would ever actually put someone in danger.”

“He probably doesn’t see it like that,” Mabel argued. “To him, you were close to get his boyfriend killed.”

“Urgh,” Dipper threw himself on the couch. “I’m gonna really need to up my game before he trusts me again, right?”

“Probably,” Mabel patted him on the forehead.

Their conversation was interrupted by a knock on the front door.

“It’s him!” Dipper shot up from the couch and pushed Mabel towards a nearby window. “He can’t see you!”

“I’m going, I’m going!” Mabel laughed and opened the window. “See ya!” she waved goodbye before jumping out the window.

Dipper took a moment to try and regain composure, before he walked to the front door and opened it, The Illuminator waiting on the other side.

“Hope I’m not too early,” The Illuminator smirked as he stepped inside.

“No, you’re right on time,” Dipper assured the other man, unable to stop smiling. “Uh, I’ve picked out some movies, and um, I’ve put out some snacks, so…”

“That sounds great,” The Illuminator sat down on the couch, a somewhat odd sight, and Dipper sat down beside him, trying to sit as close to him as possible, without it being clear that’s what he was trying to.

The movie was started, and the two men proceeded to watch in silence. Well, The Illuminator was watching it, while Dipper was too busy being acutely aware of how close they were sitting; maybe he should have sat down a little further away.

Dipper gasped a little when a warm hand was placed on his. He looked at The Illuminator, and saw that he was looking at him.

“Is… is this alright?” The Illuminator asked, sounding a little awkwardly. The hand on Dipper’s was completely slack, as if The Illuminator was afraid of accidently cutting Dipper with his claws.

“It’s fine,” Dipper smiled and placed his other hand on top of The Illuminator’s.

After the first movie was done, and the second one was halfway through, Dipper could feel himself getting more and more tired. Insomnia wasn’t uncommon for him, but lately it had been really bad. Yet somehow, The Illuminator had a soothing effect on Dipper, making him relax and feel at peace with the world. He yawned and fought hard to keep his eyes open, when he finally nodded off, head resting on The Illuminator’s shoulder.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dipper awoke when he felt someone gently shaking his shoulder. He opened his eyes and realized he was lying in The Illuminator’s lap. Dipper jumped away to the other side of the couch, his face flushed in embarrassment.

“I’m so sorry,” Dipper groaned, covering his face with his hands.

“That’s alright; I didn’t mind,” The Illuminator laughed. “Anyway, the movie’s over, and I think you’re getting tired.”

“Yeah,” Dipper yawned. “I should probably go to bed; me and my sister are going to a fair tomorrow.”

“Really?” The Illuminator’s eyes widened with interest.

“It’s a couple miles out of town,” Dipper explained. “We’re gonna open a booth and try to sell some flowers there.”

“Well, I can see why you need to be well rested for that,” The Illuminator’s smile turned into a somewhat predatory smirk. “Of course, there is one way I could help you get a good night’s sleep~”

“H-huh?” Dipper swallowed loudly as The Illuminator began to crawl closer to him.

“What do you say?” the Melior asked, slipping a hand under Dipper’s shirt, stroking his stomach. “Ready to take this to the next level?”

Dipper was conflicted. On one hand, yes, of course he wanted to! On the other hand, he was a nervous virgin, with absolutely no sexual experience, aside from getting himself off, and actual sex seemed like a really big step. While the two conflicting sides fought, Dipper noted how close The Illuminator was to Dipper’s transformation stone, and that small observation, ended the conflict in Dipper’s head.

“N-no,” Dipper gasped, carefully removing The Illuminator’s hand. “I-I’m sorry, I’m just not…”

“You don’t have to apologize,” The Illuminator said and backed away, giving Dipper more space. “I came across pretty forceful, huh?”

“Maybe a little,” Dipper shrugged. “I-It’s just… I’ve never been with anyone… like that before…”

“I understand,” The Illuminator nodded and rose from the couch. “Guess I’d better leave then.”

He headed for the door, but just as he reached it, Dipper jumped up from the couch, turned The Illuminator around, and kissed him firmly.

“Have a safe trip home,” Dipper smiled at the Melior.

“Bye for now,” The Illuminator returned Dipper’s smile and left.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day, after a short ride on the bus, the twins arrived at the fair around noon. Dipper was pulling two small carts, both of which were filled with potted plants, while Mabel was reading a small brochure’s map, trying to find the spot where their booth was.

After about fifteen minutes of searching, the duo found their booth and began placing their plants, as well as a couple of signs that Mabel had made.

“So, how did your date with The Illuminator go?” Mabel asked with a knowing smirk.

“We didn’t do anything, Mabel,” Dipper groaned, leaning against the booth.

“I’m not saying you necessarily did the do, but judging by how messy the couch was, you must have had one intense make out session.”

“We didn’t!” Dipper insisted. “And besides, I think it’s going to be a while before we actually… you know…”

“Why?” Mabel asked, her eyes squinting in confusion.

“I don’t want him to see my transformation stone,” Dipper replied.

“Oh, come on, Dipper,” Mabel let out a frustrated sigh. “Why don’t you just tell him? Wouldn’t it make everything so much easier?”

“At the moment, maybe,” Dipper shrugged. “But what if our relationship doesn’t work out? Then he’ll probably not want to patrol with Pine Tree anymore. Besides, he hasn’t even revealed his true identity yet; how do I know he even thinks our relationship is serious?”

“You’re just making excuses now,” Mabel scolded him.

“Maybe,” Dipper sighed. “But revealing my secret identity is going to change everything, and I’m just not ready for that… not yet anyway.”

The conversation was dropped for now, but Dipper knew his sister would bring it up at some point.

For a while, nothing major happened, until Dipper noticed his sister was smiling at something behind him. Dipper was about to turn around and see what it was, when two hands covered his eyes.

“Guess who~” a familiar voice said.

“I’m not in the mood, Bill,” Dipper grumbled. The hands were removed from his eyes, and a very pouty Bill walked up from behind him.

“Aw, Porcupine, if you’re mad, don’t take it out on me~” Bill teased.

“I’m always gonna take it out on you,” Dipper rebutted. “Anyway, what are you even doing here? I thought you said, you didn’t wanna come.”

“I said I was on the fence about it,” Bill clarified. “But last night, I decided why not; I’ll take any opportunity to spend time with my favorite little critter.” Bill punctuated his statement by patting Dipper on the head.

“Well, now that you’re here, Bill,” Mabel said, smiling happily. “Why don’t I leave you two alone, while I go out to drum up some business?”

“Are you seriously leaving me alone with this guy?” Dipper asked.

“Aw, don’t you trust me, Porcupine?” Bill pouted again.

“Nope,” Dipper responded in a no-nonsense tone.

“Have fun,” Mabel grabbed a stack of homemade flyers and left.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mabel sighed dejectedly as another flyer was turned down. She had been walking around for at least an hour, and only handed out two.

She walked up to a nearby snack truck, and bought a vanilla Popsicle. She began wandering around, giving the Popsicle a couple of unenthusiastic licks, when she suddenly heard someone grunt out: “Hungry”.

She turned towards the sound, and saw it was a pig pen, with an adorable, little pig, standing on its hind legs, front legs resting on the fence, and staring at Mabel with cutest, small eyes ever.

“Hey little guy,” Mabel smiled and walked over to the pig. “You hungry?”

“Hungry,” the pig grunted again, although Mabel realized it sounded like an ordinary grunt to other people.

“Here you go,” Mabel gave the pig her Popsicle, and it began licking it so fast that it got ice cream all over its snout. “Look at you go!”

“Good,” the pig grunted as it finished.

“Yeah, I bet you don’t get many snacks like that,” Mabel giggled. “My name is Mabel.”

“Mabel,” the pig grunted in response.

“Yes, Mabel,” Mabel nodded excitedly. “What’s your name?”

“No name,” the pig grunted sadly, before lighting up slightly. “You hear?”

“Yes,” Mabel whispered. “I can’t explain it right here and now, but I can understand you.”

“My, you seem to have taken a shine to him,” a man inside the pig pen walked up to Mabel.

“Yeah, he’s really great,” Mabel petted the pig on the forehead.

“Sure hope he is,” the man responded. “I’m his owner, and I’m entering him in this here contest.” The man pointed towards a sign that said: “Best Pig Awards”.

“Aww, that’s so cute,” Mabel tilted her head and smiled fondly.

“Yup, and if he doesn’t win, he’s going on the dinner table,” the man replied nonchalantly.

“WHAT!?!” Mabel screeched, scaring the pig away.

“Hey, I don’t tell you how to raise your pigs,” the man frowned at her, before running after his spooked pig.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dipper waved goodbye to a young woman, who had just bought one of the plants.

“So, how’s your relationship with The Illuminator going?” Bill asked.

“Pretty good, I think,” Dipper responded, trying to convey through his tone that he didn’t want to discuss his love life with Bill.

“It’s just kinda weird, imagining you two together,” Bill laughed. “I mean, you’re a cute, little thing, and he’s-“

“If you’re gonna call him a monster again, I swear, I will slap you,” Dipper interrupted.

“Alright, I’ll keep my mouth shut,” Bill put up his hands in a sign of defeat. “But you have to admit, the two of you make an odd couple.”

“So?” Dipper asked with a frown. “You’re making it sound like that’s automatically a bad thing.”

“DIPPER!!!” Mabel screeched, running up to her brother in a panic.

“What’s wrong, Mabel?” Dipper asked in a concerned tone.

“We have to save a pig I found!” Mabel responded.

“Why? What’s wrong with it?” Dipper inquired, his voice less worried now.

“His owner wants to eat him, if he loses a contest,” Mabel explained.

“Well, we can’t really do anything about that, Mabel,” Dipper shrugged.

“Dipper! This is a really great pig!” Mabel shook her brother violently.

“I’m sorry, Mabel,” Dipper removed his sister’s hands. “But we can’t just take an animal; that would be stealing.”

“But…” Mabel was about to protest, but fell silent, knowing that her brother was right.

Suddenly, a wave of people appeared, running away and screaming. Some smoke was visible in the distance.

“It looks like trouble,” Dipper said.

“Yeah,” Bill agreed. “We should probably get to safety.”

The trio ran in the same direction as the crowd, but it didn’t take long for Bill to get separated from the twins in the midst of the chaos.

“Where’s Bill?” Mabel asked, looking in every direction, hoping to spot him in the crowd.

“It’s probably for the best,” Dipper whispered to his sister. “If he just follows the crowd, he’ll be safe. Let’s find somewhere to transform.”

Through a lot of pushing and shoving, the twins managed to escape from the panicked crowd, and duck behind a booth, where they proceeded to transform. They then began to travel in the opposite direction, hoping to find out where the smoke came from.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The twins arrived to the middle of the fairgrounds, where not only were all the booths on fire, but a group of people were trapped inside a fire ring.

The woman controlling this was obviously a Melior; she had short pink hair, with a pink leotard, and dark pink thigh high boots and gloves that reached her shoulders.

“Why are you doing this?” Mabel asked.

“Huh, you’re not what I’m after,” the woman said, tilting her head. “But if you’re here, that must mean he’s close by.”

“Are you talking about The Illuminator?” Dipper inquired.

“I have a proposition for him,” the woman responded. “I promise I’ll let everyone go… as long as he says yes, of course.”

“What makes you think we’re going to let you get away with this?” Dipper sneered.

“Well, ask yourself this, boy,” the woman smirked. “You control plants, I control fire; do you see where I’m coming from?”

“You’re forgetting me!” Mabel shot a star bolt at the woman. It hit her in the chest, but besides making her stumble slightly, it didn’t seem to hurt her.

“That all you got?” her smirk grew. “You kids gotta realize, I’m on a whole other level than you. So why don’t you just sit back, and wait for The Illuminator to come and fix everything?”

“No need to wait,” The Illuminator jumped down from the roof of a nearby booth, landing between the twins and the woman. “It’s been a long time, Monica.”

“That’s not even my name anymore!” the woman roared. “Besides, you should call me by my ‘stage name’; Pyro.”

“Pyro?” The Illuminator looked at her slightly dumbfounded. “That’s the best you can come up with it?”

“At least it’s easier to say than ‘The Illuminator’,” Pyro rolled her eyes. “Anyway, I’m here with a proposition for you.”

“Normally, I’d say I’m not interested, but considering you have hostages,” The Illuminator nodded at the people who were still trapped. “I’m all ears.”

“Me and some of our old members were contacted by someone,” Pyro explained. “You ever heard about IMP?”

The Illuminator’s eyes widened in recognition. “You don’t want to get involved with them.”

“They’re recruiting Meliors,” Pyro continued, her voice lowering, but an underlying tone of excitement was evident. “They want us. They believe our powers can be used for good; isn’t that what you always wanted?”

“They don’t recruit Meliors, they contain us!” The Illuminator shouted. “I don’t want anything to do with them, and neither should you.”

Before Pyro was able to retaliate, a giant vine that Dipper had grown while she was distracted, grabbed her around the waist.

“Is that really the best you can do?” Pyro smirked, her voice only slightly strained. She merely touched the vine, and it caught on fire, burning until she was free. “Now, where were we?”

“Shooting Star, rescue the hostages,” The Illuminator commanded, his body enveloping in blue fire. “I’ll take care of her.”

“What about me?” Dipper asked, but The Illuminator ignored him. Dipper shot The Illuminator a small glare, before walking over to help his sister.

While The Illuminator fought Pyro, sending sparks and flames flying everywhere, Dipper and Mabel attempted to find a way to free the hostages.

“I’ll fly in from the top and save them,” Mabel suggested. Mabel tried to do so, but the flames moved as if they had a will of their own, lashing out at Mabel when she tried to fly inside. “We’ll have to put out the fire. Is there any water nearby?”

“That might end badly,” Dipper responded. “We don’t know how Pyro’s powers work, so there is the possibility that this works like a chemical fire; if we try to put it out with water, it’ll make the fire worse.”

“Then what do we do?”

“Since there doesn’t seem to be a fire extinguisher,” Dipper noted. “We’ll need to choke the fire. Shooting Star,” Dipper pointed at a nearby wheelbarrow. “Fill that wheel barrow up with dirt, and pour it on the fire.”

While Mabel proceeded to do that, Dipper grew a thick vine, which he used like a shovel dig up the nearby dirt, and fling it on the fire. The hostages got a bit dirty, but at least they were safe.

Meanwhile, the battle between The Illuminator and Pyro had gotten more intense; more fire was spreading from their fight.

“We need to stop the fight,” Dipper said.

“Should I try using my star bolts again?” Mabel asked.

“No, you might hit The Illuminator,” Dipper shook his head.

Just then, The Illuminator took a hit to his face, knocking him back and giving Pyro the upper hand. As Pyro advanced on The Illuminator, Dipper knew he had to think of something. Dipper didn’t know what to do, so he did the first thing that came to mind; he ran up from behind Pyro, and grabbed her around the waist, keeping her arms to the side.

“Are you seriously doing this?” Pyro sounded unimpressed. “At least before you, used something other than yourself.”

“The difference is, I’m not going to let go,” Dipper responded.

“Really?” Pyro’s entire body burst into flames, burning Dipper, but he refused to let go.

“Illuminator! Shooting Star!” Dipper yelled. “Do something!”

“Let go of her, Pine Tree,” The Illuminator said, sounding exhausted. “I can handle her.”

“No, you can’t!” Dipper shouted.

“Then what makes you think you can handle me?” Pyro asked, sounding strained.

“Pine Tree, let go,” The Illuminator’s tone got more serious.

“No!” Dipper yelled back.

A small burst, almost like a tiny explosion happened, sending both Dipper and The Illuminator flying.

Pyro was still standing, but her appearance was more ragged, and she looked drained.

“Well, I can’t fight anyone like this,” Pyro shrugged. “You had your chance, Illuminator… And I think you’ll soon realize that you made the wrong choice… And by then, it will be too late.”

“I could say the same thing for you,” The Illuminator groaned, fighting to get back on his feet.

Before anyone could stop her, Pyro enveloped in fire, and flew off, leaving only a small fire burning where she stood before.

Finally, The Illuminator got to his feet, and he walked over to Dipper who was still lying on the ground, breathing heavily.

“Why didn’t you listen to me?” The Illuminator asked, sounding angry.

“I… I didn’t know,” Dipper groaned as he sat up.

“Because of you, she got away!” The Illuminator shouted.

“Hey! Leave him alone!” Mabel yelled, running up to her brother and helping him to his feet. “Pine Tree did his best! If it weren’t for him, you would have been toast!”

“But Pyro’s free,” The Illuminator argued.

“He’s right, Shooting Star,” Dipper sighed. “I screwed up… again.”

“Yes, you did,” The Illuminator frowned. “I’m leaving; I have other things to take care of.”

On that sour note, The Illuminator left. The twins found a secluded place to transform back, before they returned to their booth, which had luckily been far enough away to not suffer any damage.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As time passed, it didn’t help Dipper’s sadden mood.

“Come on, Dipper,” Mabel tried to cheer her brother up. “It’s not that bad.”

“Mabel, having your boyfriend mad at you, but unable to talk to him about, because he doesn’t know that it’s you he’s mad at, is a very bad, and very complicated, situation.”

“Well, maybe you and The Illuminator should break up?” Mabel suggested.

“Mabel, no,” Dipper shook his head. “I… I don’t want to lose him…”

“Dipper, this is clearly tearing you apart. It doesn’t matter how much you like each other, if your relationship has this effect on you.”

“If what has what effect on him?” Bill walked up to the booth. “Hey, sorry for the wait,” he scratched the back of his head. “I had a couple of things I needed to take care of.”

“That’s alright, Bill,” Mabel assured him. “Me and Dipper was just talking about his relationship with The Illuminator.”

“And I keep telling Mabel that everything’s fine,” Dipper frowned in annoyance.

“Well, seems like both of you need some cheering up,” Bill placed something on Dipper’s head. Dipper pulled it off and saw that it was a flower crown made of dandelions.

“Are you calling me a weed, Bill?” Dipper asked in a somewhat bored tone.

“No, of course not!” Bill laughed. “After all, weeds are unwanted, and you are most definitely not unwanted~”

“What did you bring me?” Mabel asked excitedly.

Bill bowed down and picked something up, before he held it up to Mabel; it was a pig.

“Is that…?” Mabel asked slowly.

“He ran up to me when I said your name, so I assume it’s the right one,” Bill shrugged. “And, I mean, he’s technically stolen, but I left some money in an envelope, in the owner’s pocket…”

“Thank you! Thank you!” Mabel shrieked and the pig began to shriek along, both of them sounding very happy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I’m sorry, Veronica, what was that?” Vijana Darzi, an employee of IMP, was addressing Pyro in a meeting room.

“I said, I didn’t convince The Illuminator to join us,” Pyro transformed back to her ordinary form. “But don’t worry; he’ll realize he was wrong-“

“You were told to bring us The Illuminator,” Ms. Darzi interrupted, the smile on her face straining. “Even if you had to bring him by force.”

“I tried to!” Pyro protested. “But one of his friends grabbed me, and he wouldn’t let go until I used my Nova Burst-“

“Now, now,” Ms. Darzi wagged her finger in a reprimanding manner. “We don’t want any excuses. You failed your very first mission. Given your history with The Illuminator, you of course understand why we might suspect that you failed on purpose.”

“No, I-“ Pyro didn’t get another word in before she was shot with some kind of dart from a turret built into the wall. After a small groan of annoyance, Pyro fell unconscious to the floor. Ms. Darzi pulled out a communicator and spoke into it:

“Ms. Veronica Barnett, formerly Monica Cole, has failed her mission,” Ms. Darzi began to exit the room. “Have an orderly come and secure her, until a further evaluation can be made. Also, we are going to need someone else to capture Test Subject 001.”

“We currently don’t have any more agents available,” someone responded through the communicator. “We need to recruit more, or wait until further testing-“

“We don’t have time for further testing,” Ms. Darzi snapped.

“I- we will try to find more Melior for us to contact,” the person on the other line stuttered.

“Yes, do that,” Ms. Darzi nodded. “I’ll report to the director.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed it:3 I don't know if I'll update this fic or Abducted first (or maybe upload something new), but I promise that I won't abandon this fic:)
> 
> Please leave a comment, if you want to


	11. Episode 10: Shot Through The Heart (And You're To Blame)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang battles against a new villain, which leads to a lot of trouble for Dipper and The Illuminator's relationship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! New chapter! Sorry, this one doesn't have very good pacing, but a lot of stuff happens in this one. I still hope you'll enjoy it:3

It was late in the evening when Dipper arrived; he had received a letter, from The Illuminator, to meet up at a warehouse. This wouldn’t have been too odd had the letter been addressed to Pine Tree, but it had been for Dipper. Mabel had of course expressed her concern, but Dipper had assured her nothing bad would happen, although now he was reconsidering those words.

It had been a few weeks since the incident at the fair, and while Dipper’s relationship to The Illuminator was going wonderfully, Pine Tree’s relationship to The Illuminator was just as strained as before. Dipper was still looking for some way to get everything back to normal, but he didn’t know what to do. Mabel still suggested just telling The Illuminator his secret identity, but Dipper was afraid that would just ruin the relationship between Dipper and The Illuminator.

Dipper let out a sigh and opened the heavy door to the warehouse, a creaking sound signaling his arrival.

“Hello?” Dipper called out. “Illuminator?”

Suddenly, Dipper felt a small sting in his neck. He raised his hand to his neck and pulled something out; a black feather, the sharp calamus being what had gotten stuck in his neck. However, before Dipper could process anymore thoughts, his entire vision turned black and he collapsed to the floor.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Dipper came to, he quickly realized he was tied up, again. He groaned at the realization, as well as noticing that he was tied to a railing on a platform. In front of him stood a gorgeous woman, with long blonde hair, dressed in white, Greek robes, and a pair of feathered, rainbow-colored wings sprouted from her back.

“Huh, you awoke sooner than I expected,” the woman noted.

“W-who are you?” Dipper asked.

“I’m surprised you don’t know me,” the woman laughed, her voice clear and beautiful like a silver bell. “I go by the name Venus.”

“Did you write that letter to me?” Dipper continued asking.

“Yeah actually,” Venus shrugged. “Don’t worry; I wrote one for your boyfriend too, but his tells him to arrive much later.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“For fun,” Venus giggled with glee. “Do you know what my powers are? Chemicals.”

“Like poison?” Dipper frowned.

“No, brain chemicals,” Venus explained. “The feathers on my back aren’t just for flight; each color represents a different dose of chemicals. If I hit someone with these things, I can make them feel whatever I want.”

“Let me guess,” Dipper interrupted. “The black feather you hit me with, was filled with melatonin.”

“You got it,” she smirked. “And the bigger the feather, the bigger the dosage; I gave you a pretty big one to make sure you fell asleep.”

“So are you going to kill me?” Dipper asked. “Or threaten my life to gain something from The Illuminator?”

“What? No,” Venus sounded shocked, even appalled by that suggestion. “Where’s the fun in that? No, no, see I’m doing a test run. Someone wants use of my feathers, but first they want to know how well they work. They want to know if they can even affect someone as powerful as The Illuminator.”

“Then why kidnap me? Why not just send The Illuminator that letter?”

“Because I want something out of this too!” Venus laughed. “I mean, yeah, I’m getting paid for this, but money can only do so much for you! No, I’m going to use another feather on you as soon as The Illuminator shows up. Some of my feathers create emotions that only flare up for the first person you see after you’ve been hit, so as soon as The Illuminator shows up, and your eyes are all on him, I’m hitting you with another feather. I just don’t know which one to use! Tell me, do you think The Illuminator would get most hurt if you were angry with him or disgusted by him?”

Venus was then interrupted by The Illuminator, swooping down and kicking her away from Dipper.

“Ah, Illuminator!” Venus exclaimed with a strained smile, clutching the part of her arm that The Illuminator had hit. “So nice to finally meet you!”

“If you wanted to meet me, there was no reason to involve my boyfriend,” The Illuminator glared at the woman.

“Well, in that case,” Venus grabbed The Illuminator and tossed him out of a window, the glass breaking on impact. Then she followed him out of the broken window.

Dipper, seeing his chance to escape, transformed and broke the ropes keeping him tied, sending Mabel a quick message, before proceeding to follow the two fighting Meliors out of the building.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Dipper caught up to The Illuminator and Venus, the two were facing off against each other on a rooftop. Dipper grew a thick vine and used it like a staircase to reach them, quickly joining The Illuminator by his side.

“What’s the situation?” Dipper asked, pretending he didn’t know.

“Her feathers can make you feel different emotions,” The Illuminator explained.

“Oh, no, this is perfect!” Venus began laughing hysterical as she took out two feathers. Dipper only got a quick glance at them, one was yellow and about the same size as the black feather that hit him, but the other one was pink and nearly three times the size of the yellow one. Venus flicked the two feathers towards them, the two projectiles flying with the speed of an arrow fired from a bow.

Dipper shut his eyes, hoping that if he didn’t open them, he wouldn’t get affected, recalling what Venus had said about some of feathers only working when you saw someone. He ignored the small sting when the feather hit him in the neck, but when he felt someone tackle him to the ground, he opened his eyes in surprise.

What he saw was The Illuminator, smiling absentmindedly, and just hugging him, the huge pink feather still stuck in his neck. But before Dipper had the chance to get embarrassed about his boyfriend (even if The Illuminator didn’t know that) hugging him like that, Dipper was suddenly taken over by an overpowering, paralyzing fear. His fight or flight instincts were screaming at him to get out of there, but no matter how hard he fought he couldn’t get free from The Illuminator’s arms, and he was so scared that he couldn’t even use his powers to get free.

“Aw, isn’t this just the cutest,” Venus giggled. “Well, I would say my trial run has been a success, wouldn’t you?”

Just then, Venus was hit in the back of her head by a star bolt. Mabel soared up, her fists glowing with energy.

“Personally, I wouldn’t say so,” Mabel declared.

“Oh, well, I got what I needed,” Venus shrugged, rubbing the back of her head. “So I’ll be taking my leave now!”

Venus flew away as fast as she could, leaving the trio behind.

“Shooting Star!” Dipper called out. “Go after her! We need some kind of cure!”

“Cure for what?” Mabel tilted her head. “Oh, does it have something to do with why The Illuminator’s glomping you, even though he currently hates you?”

“Yes!” Dipper gasped, trying to take deep breaths to combat the fear. “Please find a way to reverse this!”

“Okay, I’ll be back soon,” Mabel gave chase to Venus, leaving Dipper and The Illuminator behind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mabel managed to catch up to Venus and tackled her to the nearest rooftop.

“Ha!” Mabel laughed triumphantly. “You’re not as good in combat, huh?”

“I don’t need to be,” Venus responded. “I’m not a fighter.”

“How do I reverse whatever you did to Pine Tree and The Illuminator?!” Mabel demanded angrily.

“Oh, don’t worry; the effect isn’t permanent,” Venus smirked. “… yet.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Means that my employer is looking for a way to make the effect permanent.”

“Who’s your employer!?”

“Even if I told you, it wouldn’t make a difference; you don’t know him.”

“Is there any way to reverse the effects quicker!?” Mabel asked desperately, pulling a bit on Venus’ hair.

“Ouch!” Venus exclaimed. “How about this; I’ll give you a faster cure, and then you let me leave?”

“Why would I do that?” Mabel asked.

“I thought you wanted a cure,” Venus shrugged as much as could while being restrained by Mabel. “Anyway, we’ll no doubt see each other again, so why not just get what you want now, and then you can try again next time?”

“Urgh, fine,” Mabel groaned. “But tell me first what the cure is!”

“My grey feathers,” Venus explained. “Used on their own, they cause depression, but used on someone under the effects of my feathers, it causes it to reverse.”

“Alright,” Mabel carefully eased off of Venus, looking out for any kind of trick, when the other Melior threw Mabel off.

“Here you go!” Venus threw a grey feather, which landed at Mabel’s feet. “Now you’ll just have to decide which one of your friends to use it on!”

And with that, Venus took off. Mabel debated going after her, but since she had technically promised to let Venus go, she instead decided to go back and help Dipper and The Illuminator.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Mabel showed up, not much had changed in The Illuminator and Dipper’s position; the biggest development was that Dipper had managed to get one of his arms free, which he used to try and drag himself out from underneath The Illuminator, but it didn’t seem to have an effect.

“Hold on guys!” Mabel announced as she landed. She debated on which of them to use the feather on, but decided that since The Illuminator was completely incoherent, it should probably be used on him. She pulled out the pink feather and jammed the grey one in.

After a few seconds, The Illuminator’s grip loosened, and the Melior rose from the floor, leaving Dipper to crawl as far away from him as he could.

“Do you remember what happened?” Mabel asked The Illuminator.

“Sort of,” The Illuminator removed the grey feather and rubbed his neck. “Urgh, I hope Dipper never finds out about this… Wait! Dipper!” The Illuminator exclaimed in realization. “He’s still trapped!”

“I have to go!” Dipper suddenly shouted, and sprinted as fast as he could back to the warehouse where he was attack; thanks to the extra adrenaline brought on by his fear, he arrived in no time. He got back up on the platform, transformed back to his civilian self, but then just stood there holding the cut ropes; he hadn’t thought this through.

“Dipper!” Before Dipper had a chance to figure out how to tie himself up, The Illuminator arrived, looking worried and disheveled, but all Dipper could feel was the approaching fear. “Are you alright?”

“I-I’m fine!” Dipper assured The Illuminator, instinctively taking a couple of steps back.

“How did you get free of the ropes?” The Illuminator asked.

“O-oh, uh, P-Pine Tree showed up, helped me get free,” Dipper explained, technically not lying.

“And he just left you here?” The Illuminator frowned.

“W-well, h-he said h-he was affected by those c-chemicals that Venus t-talked about,” Dipper responded. “H-he said that they m-made him s-scared of you, a-and h-he was sure you were j-just around the c-corner to save me!”

“Then why did he even bother showing up?” The Illuminator’s frown got deeper before he began to smile and walk towards Dipper. “Anyway, I’m just glad nothing happened to-“

The Illuminator paused, both in sentence and step, when he saw Dipper walking away from him.

“Dipper?” The Illuminator gave Dipper a careful look, before an expression of hurt appeared on his face. “Are you… scared of me?”

“W-what?” Dipper tried to sound nonchalant, even as his heart felt like it was about to burst out of his chest, and his instincts kept telling him to get away. “Of c-course not! W-whatever gave you that idea?”

“You are,” The Illuminator concluded. “I know fear when I see it.”

“I-It’s not…” Dipper didn’t even know what he could say, he couldn’t think with all this fear coursing through his body.

“I understand,” The Illuminator looked away. “I won’t be bothering you anymore. It’s probably for the best.”

“W-what?” Dipper gasped. “W-what are y-you saying?”

“It’s over, Dipper,” The Illuminator sighed sadly. “Don’t worry; I know you won’t have trouble finding someone better.”

Before Dipper could get another word in, The Illuminator left, leaving Dipper alone and heartbroken on the platform. Without the constant barrage of fear, sorrow quickly took over, causing Dipper to curl up and start crying.

At some point, Mabel arrived, still in her ‘form.

“Dipper, The Illuminator told me to rescue you,” she said, sounding confused. “He didn’t say why, but- Dipper, are you crying? Does this have something to with those feathers?”

Dipper shook his head, refusing to look at his sister.

“The I-Illuminator… broke up with me,” Dipper sobbed.

“Oh, Dipper,” Mabel let out a sympathetic sigh, and placed a hand on her brother’s shoulder. “Let’s get home, and then you can tell me about it, okay?”

Dipper nodded and rose from the floor. Mabel helped Dipper down from the platform, before transforming back to her civilian-self, and the two twins went home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At home, Dipper explained what had happened, Mabel nodding along and listening patiently. Afterwards, Mabel had broken out the tubs of ice cream, saying that Dipper would feel better if he suffocated his heartache with an ice cream headache. Even Waddles, the name Mabel had given their new pet pig, was trying to comfort Dipper, lying in his lap like a sleepy cat.

However, as it got late, and since they had to get up early for work tomorrow, Mabel went to bed, Waddles following her to her bedroom, leaving Dipper alone. Mabel had suggested that they should take the next day off from work, but Dipper had insisted not to, arguing that the work would help him keep his mind off of…

Well, he couldn’t stop thinking about The Illuminator now, lying alone in his bed. Did The Illuminator hate him now? The Illuminator had said that Dipper was the first human not afraid to stand up to him, and now Dipper had destroyed that idea. The Illuminator probably thought now that their entire relationship had been build on fear, that Dipper had simply been too scared to say no to him.

Dipper began shaking as tears streamed down his cheeks. All this because of a simple misunderstanding… The Illuminator had said that Dipper would have no trouble finding someone better, but Dipper knew that wasn’t true…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mabel was worried about Dipper; it was the morning after his break-up with The Illuminator, and her brother hadn’t said a word to her, he hadn’t even gotten any breakfast, he just went straight into his work room, locking the door behind him.

Aside from that, Bill was an entire hour late. Mabel was starting to get worried about him too, when the door swung open, revealing a very tired looking Bill; his hair was more messy than usual and he had visible circles under his eyes, like he hadn’t slept very well.

“Sorry, I’m late,” Bill said with a chuckle, but there was none of his usual humor in his voice.

“You look pretty tired,” Mabel noted. “Are you getting sick?”

“No, I just,” Bill shrugged nonchalantly. “Had some trouble sleeping last time… Anyway, where’s Dipper?”

“I’m glad you brought him up,” Mabel replied. “The Illuminator broke up with Dipper last night, and he needs as many friends as possible.”

“Oh, really?” Bill widened his eyes in surprise. “I… I hadn’t seen that coming.”

“Dipper is emotionally destroyed,” Mabel explained. “He tries to put up a brave front, but… I’ll get him; he should probably tell you himself.”

“Actually I don’t-“ but Bill was interrupted by Mabel knocking on the door to Dipper’s work room.

“Dipper,” Mabel called out. “Bill’s here.”

After a few seconds, the door unlocked and Dipper stepped out, looking even worse than Bill.

“… Hi,” Dipper greeted Bill, his voice sounding hoarse.

“Hey,” Bill greeted Dipper with a nod. “So, I heard you and The Illuminator broke up?”

“Yeah,” Dipper replied, his face and voice devoid of any emotion.

“That’s… well, I guess it sucks when any relationship doesn’t work out, even the bad ones,” Bill chuckled awkwardly.

“What?” Dipper glared at Bill. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Heh, no I probably don’t,” Bill shrugged. “I’m… not really good at this… I’m just gonna cut to the chase; I’m dealing with some personal stuff right now, and I won’t be able to work here anymore.”

“Well, it’s alright if you need a little time off,” Mabel assured him. “I think you deserve some vacation hours.”

“No, you don’t understand,” Bill let out a sad sigh. “I’m quitting.”

“What?” Dipper let out a tiny, almost inaudible gasp.

“Like I said, I’m dealing with some personal stuff, and,” Bill shrugged.

“… Fine,” Dipper said, glaring weakly at Bill and trying to keep his tears at bay. He couldn’t deal with this; first he lost The Illuminator, now he was losing Bill just as he was starting to consider the other man a friend. “If you wanna go, then go.”

“It’s not like I want to,” Bill protested. “It would just be… too hard.”

“I don’t want to hear your excuses!” Dipper shouted, a couple of tears falling from his eyes. “Just leave!”

“… Alright,” Bill nodded and turned around, heading towards the door. Before opening the door, Bill paused and turned his head towards Dipper. “You know, Dipper… You deserve someone better than The Illuminator.”

And just like that, Bill had left.

“Oh, Dipper,” Mabel placed a comforting hand on her brother’s shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” Dipper mumbled. “It’s just…” he wiped away the tears on his cheek. “Hard losing two people in two days…”

“Maybe everything’s not lost,” Mabel suddenly said.

“What?” Dipper frowned at his sister.

“You’re still going to patrol with The Illuminator tonight, as Pine Tree, right?”

“I don’t really know if I’m up for it,” Dipper sighed.

“No, you should,” Mabel insisted. “Talk to him as Pine Tree, and try to get him to talk to you as Dipper.”

“Your choice of words is very confusing.”

“I mean, when you meet up for patrol with The Illuminator tonight, convince him to take you, Dipper, back.”

“Why should he listen to me?”

“What other options do you have?” Mabel asked.

“Not a lot,” Dipper admitted.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When the time came for Dipper to meet up with The Illuminator, he was more than apprehensive, but he had no choice. He arrived at their usual meeting place, The Illuminator already waiting for him.

“Hi,” Dipper greeted him, trying to sound upbeat.

“Did you get Venus’ drug out of your system?” The Illuminator asked.

“Yeah,” Dipper nodded. “I don’t know when the effect wore off, but I’m not scared of you anymore.”

Dipper noticed that The Illuminator flinched slightly at his choice of words.

“Is something wrong?” Dipper asked, already knowing the answer.

“I don’t wanna trouble you…”

“Well, we’re friends, right? You can tell me. If there’s something bothering you, I want to help.”

“… Dipper and I have broken up,” The Illuminator responded, his expression very neutral.

“Oh, I’m sorry… What happened?”

“He was afraid of me,” The Illuminator shrugged. “I couldn’t force him to be with someone he was scared of.”

“Maybe he wasn’t scared of you?”

“No. He was definitely scared of me. I know fear when I see it, especially when it’s directed at me.”

“But maybe you’re not seeing the whole picture,” Dipper suggested. “Why not try talking to him?”

“I can’t do that to him,” The Illuminator sighed, closing his eyes. “I wouldn’t be able to look at him, and see that kind of terror again, knowing that I’m the one causing it.”

“What if he got hit by one of Venus’ feathers?”

“He didn’t get hit before my battle with Venus. After that, Shooting Star fought Venus and chased her off in the opposite direction of where Dipper was held. There is no point in time where Venus would have been able to shoot a feather at him.”

“So that’s it? Your relationship with him is over?”

“It’s undoubtedly hard for him; breaking up is hard, even if the relationship was bad. But he deserves better.”

“Yeah? I’d like to know where he can find better,” Dipper tried to joke in an attempt to hide his own sadness.

“Well, I’d ask you, but,” The Illuminator shrugged.

“Ask me what?”

“To date Dipper, but, y’know…”

“… What?” Dipper frowned. “Is this because of that incident at the bank?”

“No, because you’re dating Shooting Star.”

“… Excuse me?” Dipper shook his head in confusion. “You think me and Shooting Star are dating?!”

“Well, you seemed so close, so I assumed…”

“No, she’s like a sister to me!”

“Oh,” The Illuminator made a small sound of realization. “Then, maybe you should date Dipper.”

“I don’t know,” Dipper shrugged. “I don’t really think he’s my type…”

“Think about it,” The Illuminator responded. “Dipper deserves a hero… Speaking of which, you might need to start taking over for me soon.”

“What are you talking about?” Dipper asked.

“I’m thinking about leaving town.”

“What!?” Dipper exclaimed. “Why? Because of your break up with Dipper?”

“Partially,” The Illuminator replied. “I’ve been going from city to city for a big part of my life. Gravity Falls is the city I’ve lived in the longest, it’s the first place I’ve ever really been able to call home… But it might be time to set out and find someplace else.”

“You can’t be serious,” Dipper said. “The city needs you!”

“The city has you and Shooting Star now, and you’re both better heroes than I’ll ever be,” The Illuminator approached the edge of the roof. “I’m gonna take some time alone to think… Then I’ll decide whether I stay or leave. In the meantime, I’m counting on you to keep the city safe.”

The Illuminator leapt from the roof, landing on the street and disappearing into the night, leaving Dipper behind, even more broken than before.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Venus was excited to meet up with her new employer; she thought the trial run had gone great, and if he kept up his part of the deal, she would get to see a lot more fun.

“So, what do you think?” Venus asked her employer. They were situated in a warehouse in the business district of Gravity Falls; the perfect place to build an inconspicuous lair according to him.

“Who was that heroine that stopped you?” her employer asked in his southern drawl.

“Oh, that’s Shooting Star,” Venus explained. “She’s a new hero in town.”

“She certainly is dazzling,” her employer was looking at photograph of Shooting Star, which he had printed from his computer.

“You want me to hit her with a feather?” Venus grinned. “I can shoot her with a big, pink one; make her fall for you hard.”

“No. Not until our little project is done,” her employer practically giggled with excitement.

“You got it,” Venus laughed along. “So, who is our first target?”

“The only one who could serve as a threat to us; The Illuminator.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, I'm just terrible, aren't I X3 Anyway, I'll prioritise working on the next chapter of Lovesick, since I haven't updated that fic in a while, then I'll work on this fic, and then I'll return to working on Abducted. Sounds good?
> 
> Please leave a comment if you want to:3


	12. Episode 11: See Me As I Am

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been three weeks since Dipper and The Illuminator broke up. Something is wrong with The Illuminator, but Dipper and Mabel haven't been able to get back into contact with him... until now

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! New chapter! I am super proud of this! This chapter is pretty much the reason why I wanted to write this story! I've had this chapter in mind since I first wrote this, so hopefully you like it:3

It had been three weeks since Dipper’s break up with The Illuminator, and three weeks since Bill quit. The first week had been the hardest; Dipper had just spent most of the time lying in his bed, trying to sleep the pain away. And while Dipper was now out and about more, the sting in his heart was still there.

Surprisingly enough, however, The Illuminator hadn’t left Gravity Falls, at least according to the News; while he hadn’t been spotted, it seemed like The Illuminator had returned to his old habits of mind wiping criminals. Dipper hoped it wasn’t true, he didn’t want it to be true, but there was no one else it could be.

Halfway through the second week, Dipper had started patrolling as Pine Tree again, mostly hoping that he would run into The Illuminator and get some answers, but he could never find him. There also didn’t seem to be much need for Pine Tree, as the streets were quieter than ever.

Dipper was on his way home after a late night delivery; now that Bill had quit his job, Dipper had to take over his delivery duties, at least until Mabel found a replacement.

He walked past a familiar alleyway, recalling that it was there he had first met The Illuminator. As silly as it was, a thought struck Dipper that, maybe if he walked through the alley again, he would meet The Illuminator. Dipper couldn’t help but let out a scoffing laugh at the idea, but he still found himself walking towards the alleyway.

After taking a couple of steps inside, Dipper stopped up, wondering if he should go back. It wasn’t like it was going to work anyway, so what was the point?

Dipper turned around, prepared to walk back to the street, but found his way blocked by a man holding a knife.

“Hand over your money,” the man said, jabbing the knife menacingly in Dipper’s direction. Dipper put up his hands, trying to look as unthreatening as possible.

“Look, I don’t want any trouble,” Dipper replied in a calm tone. “I’m going to take out my wallet, and I am going to give it to you… So, just relax…” The only cash Dipper had on hand were from the recent delivery, so it wasn’t a big loss, certainly not worth risking his secret identity over.

However, before Dipper had a chance to reach for his wallet, a shadow swooped down from the roof and attacked the assailant in a way that was very familiar to Dipper.

It was The Illuminator, only he was wearing different clothes; he was wearing all black, a turtleneck, a long trench coat, pants and boots. He paid Dipper no mind, as he grabbed the assailant by the neck and flung him into a wall. The Illuminator used one hand to hold the now thrashing assailant in place, while the other hand started glowing white. Dipper’s eyes widened as he recognized what that meant, and knew he had to intervene.

“Wait! Stop!” Dipper shouted. “Let him go! You don’t have to do this!”

The Illuminator looked at Dipper through the corner of his eye, an almost sadden expression on his face before it was taken over by one of rage, as he turned back to the assailant. The Illuminator brought the white glowing hand to the criminal’s head, holding it in place as the light erupted in a small burst.

The assailant’s eyes turned completely blank, his body unmoving, lifeless except for his shallow breaths. The Illuminator just dropped the body to the floor.

“Why did you do that!?” Dipper yelled, feelings of anger, frustration, and even confusion welling up inside him.

The Illuminator paused, as if he wanted to say something. Dipper noted that The Illuminator’s hand, the one which had been used to mind wipe the assailant, twitched slightly. Then The Illuminator leapt away, leaving Dipper behind in the alleyway.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After calling an ambulance for the mind wiped man, Dipper hurried home as fast as his legs could carry him. He threw the door open and found Mabel in the living room.

“Dipper, is something wrong?” Mabel asked, looking surprised at her brother’s sudden entrance.

“I just saw The Illuminator,” Dipper gasped, nearly out of breath after having run the entire way home.

“Are you serious, Dipper!?” Mabel exclaimed in shock.

“He rescued me from a mugger,” Dipper explained. “Then he… he mind wiped the guy… Something’s going on with him; he said he had stopped using the mind wipe.”

“Yeah, but he also said he stopped because of you,” Mabel pointed out. “Maybe now that you’re not together, he just… returned to using it?”

“I don’t know,” Dipper sighed and shook his head. “He was wearing a new suit too; I think he might be involved in something. I’m worried about him…”

“Well, what are we going to do about it?” Mabel asked. “You’ve been searching for The Illuminator as Pine Tree, and you’ve yet to find him.”

“I haven’t searched in his home,” Dipper said. “I didn’t want to go there; it seemed like a breach on privacy, but whatever’s going on might be worth it.”

“If there is something wrong with The Illuminator, maybe you should go as Pine Tree?”

“No, Pine Tree isn’t supposed to know where The Illuminator lives. But I could use Shooting Star’s help.”

“For what?” Mabel frowned in confusion.

“In case The Illuminator runs off again, you can track him and message me where he runs off to,” Dipper explained. “Anyway, it’s the only plan I have.”

“Alright, Dipper,” Mabel sighed in defeat. “Let’s do it.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They arrived at The Illuminator’s home; Mabel held look out on a nearby rooftop, ready to pursue The Illuminator if he showed up. Dipper went inside, the door creaking loudly as he opened and closed it.

The building was just as dusty and broken down as the last time Dipper was here, making him wonder, not for the first time, why The Illuminator lived like this.

He began looking around, the floorboards practically screaming with each step took, alerting anyone who might be there to his presence.

Finally he saw some kind of light, shining from a door which was opened just a crack. He ran towards the door and flung it open, revealing a fireplace with a strong fire burning inside; someone must have been there recently. Something was lying close to fireplace, a small piece of paper or something. Dipper walked over and picked it up; it was a photo, a photo of Dipper. The only problem was, Dipper recognized this photo, which might not sound as creepy as if he didn’t recognize it, but he knew who had taken this photo, and it wasn’t The Illuminator.

Weeks before Bill had left, he had brought an old Polaroid camera to work, wanting to take pictures of everyone; this particular photo had been a selfie Bill had taken with Dipper, only… someone had crossed Bill out, leaving only Dipper on the picture. Had The Illuminator done that?”

Dipper snapped out of his thoughts when he heard the floorboards creak, turning his head around to see a tall shadow run out of the room, and Dipper had a pretty good idea who it was.

“Wait!” Dipper called out, trying to run after him, but he only got a small glint before The Illuminator disappeared into the night.

Dipper decided to go back inside, transform, and wait for Mabel to call him. He waited in the room with the burning fireplace, and took a last, sad look at the photo, before throwing it on the fire.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About fifteen minutes later, he got a message from Mabel, saying that The Illuminator had ducked into a warehouse in the business district. Dipper gave a short reply that he would be there soon, and ran off.

Once he got there, he was quick to find Mabel and rejoin her.

“He’s in there,” Mabel said, pointing at a big warehouse.

“Something’s off about this,” Dipper frowned. “We’re gonna need to be stealthy here.”

The two heroes snuck around the outside of the warehouse, until they found an open window, just big enough for them to squeeze through. They entered some kind of office, only it was rather dusty and worn down, like it had once been used frequently, but not anymore. Dipper and Mabel crouched down and slowly opened the office door, the sound of voices greeting them as they did.

“We need to speed up the plan,” the voice of The Illuminator sounded. Dipper stuck his head out further and spotted The Illuminator in conversation with two others; one of them was definitely Venus, but Dipper couldn’t recognize the other. The Illuminator was walking back and forth, looking agitated and frustrated.

“We still don’t have everything ready,” the unknown person said. He had a southern accent, but also sounded and looked very young, couldn’t be more than fifteen.

“You promised me-!” The Illuminator was about to roar, but he was interrupted by Venus.

“Calm down, sweetie,” she hushed him with a smile. “Don’t take your anger out on us; we’re trying to help you. You need to save all your frustrations for your little friend~”

“He’s not my friend!” The Illuminator shouted. “Not anymore.”

“Unfortunately, no one has seen Pine Tree for quite a while,” the unknown boy said. “Nor Shooting Star for that matter.”

“What?” Dipper gasped quietly.

“I heard something,” The Illuminator said, jerking his head towards Dipper and Mabel; they had been caught.

“Well, when you speak of the devil,” the unknown boy laughed. “Hello there, Shooting Star. How do you like my hideout? Can I get you anything?”

“Uh, no thanks,” Mabel responded awkwardly, her and Dipper rising from the floor, unsure if there was any danger.

“Pine Tree,” The Illuminator growled and began marching towards Dipper.

“Wait a moment!” Dipper yelled. “What’s going on here?”

“Who are you?” Mabel asked, looking at the unknown boy.

“Why, I’m a Melior, like you,” the boy replied. “I go by Pentagram. And I would love to have a more… intimate talk with you, as soon as my associate has taken care of your… escort.”

The Illuminator lunged at Dipper, who barely managed to dodge in time, along with Mabel who flew up into the air.

“Careful now, Illuminator,” Pentagram chastised. “Don’t hurt my sweet star.”

“What!?” Mabel shrieked in shock.

“Why are you doing this!?” Dipper yelled as The Illuminator kept trying to attack him.

“The Illuminator finally saw through your lies,” Venus giggled. Dipper shot her a confused look before he was forced to continue dodging The Illuminator. “After all, isn’t it odd how The Illuminator’s little boyfriend was so in love with him, but the moment you have a moment alone with him, he suddenly gets scared of The Illuminator?”

“What? Illuminator, you don’t actually believe that, rig-?”

“I WON’T LET YOU TAKE HIM FROM ME!!!” The Illuminator roared and shot out a blue flame. It hit Dipper and sent him flying up through the roof, and landing on another building’s rooftop.

Dipper fought to get back up, faintly hearing the sound of Mabel screaming for him, but when he opened his eyes, all he saw was The Illuminator, staring angrily down at him.

“Listen to me-“ Dipper tried to say, but was grabbed by The Illuminator.

“You think you deserve him?” The Illuminator growled.

“Who are you talking about?” Dipper gasped.

“Dipper,” The Illuminator answered, only he didn’t sound so angry when he said Dipper’s name. He almost whispered it like a prayer. But the moment of calm was short-lived, as The Illuminator started shaking Dipper violently. “WHAT DID YOU TELL HIM!?!”

“Nothing!” Dipper insisted. “Whatever those two told you, they were lying! I promise-“

“NO!!!” The Illuminator flung Dipper toward a thick, brick chimney. Dipper hit the back of his head on the bricks, and once again fell to the ground. “Once I’m rid of you… he’ll take me back… Everything will go back to normal…”

“Illuminator, stop!” Dipper shouted. “Would Dipper really want you to kill someone?”

The Illuminator stopped up, the look of anger on his face replaced with a shocked and almost sad expression, but it was quickly over. The Illuminator growled, grabbed Dipper by his suit, and held him against the chimney.

“I won’t be manipulated by you anymore,” The Illuminator said. “You know NOTHING about him.”

The Illuminator placed his hand over Dipper’s throat, using the area between his index finger and thumb. Dipper found it somewhat odd, yet promising, that The Illuminator wasn’t using his claws, but then the other and started inching closer and closer, making The Illuminator’s intent clear. All Dipper could do was trying to wrestle The Illuminator’s arm away and beg for mercy, but it did nothing.

Then Dipper thought, that might be one other way out of this. The Illuminator seemed to let up his rage when he thought of Dipper, so if Dipper revealed his true identity to The Illuminator, he might be saved. Then again, if it didn’t work, that would be the end of him, as outside his form, he had no way to defend himself against The Illuminator.

“Wait!” Dipper gasped. “If you really want to kill me, you need to know who you’re killing.”

Dipper closed his eyes and allowed his transformation to wear off. He heard a tiny gasp, making him open his eyes to see The Illuminator, looking shocked and even a little bit scared.

The Illuminator released Dipper, his hands twitching again as he stepped away from Dipper.

“N-no,” The Illuminator gasped, sounding like he was in pain. “I won’t-“ The Illuminator’s hands flew to his own throat, scratching and pulling at the fabric covering his neck. His body convulsed and he let out a painful scream as he fell to the ground.

Dipper saw that there was some kind of collar around The Illuminator’s neck, and that The Illuminator was still trying to reach for it, but every time his hands got close, he let out another scream.

Thinking fast, Dipper hurried over to The Illuminator and reached behind his neck, looking for whatever mechanism was keeping the collar in place. The Illuminator bit his lower lip, his body still twitching, as if he was still in pain, but was trying to keep still and quiet for Dipper. Dipper finally found a clasp, similar to one on a necklace, and managed to open it, pulling off the collar, throwing it to the ground, and stomping on it, breaking it.

After a couple seconds of heavy breathing, Dipper crouched down to get a closer look at the collar; it was made of metal and had a lot of wiring and mechanical pieces inside it. Dipper noticed something red and fluffy sticking out of the collar; he pulled it out and discovered that it was a red feather. He broke more pieces of the collar off, revealing tons of red feathers inside it, the same kind of feathers Venus used. Dipper threw The Illuminator a quick look; if those were the same feathers, was he still under their effect?

“I’m fine now,” The Illuminator said, sounding exhausted. “The feathers were powering the collar, so their effect stopped when you removed it…” he crouched down beside Dipper and stared at him. “Is it… Is it really you?”

“Yes,” Dipper nodded. “Why did they put the collar on you?”

“To control me, through anger,” The Illuminator replied. “They want to create more collars like it, build an army of Meliors.”

“Do they have any more collars?” Dipper asked.

“One,” The Illuminator responded.

Dipper remembered that while he had been fighting with The Illuminator, Mabel was still in the warehouse with Pentagram and Venus. He transformed again and rose from the ground, ready to even the odds for Mabel.

“Wait,” The Illuminator said, placing a hand on Dipper’s shoulder. “You… You need to know who I am too.”

“That’ll have to wait until after the battle,” Dipper replied seriously. “Mabel is still in there!”

“Mabel?” The Illuminator’s eyes widened in surprise. “Your… sister is Shooting Star?”

“We don’t have time to discuss this right now!” Dipper grabbed The Illuminator by the shoulder and pulled him along towards the warehouse.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mabel called out her brother’s name as she saw him getting hit by The Illuminator’s fire. The Illuminator then went right after Dipper. Mabel tried to follow too, but was blocked off by Venus.

“Why are you doing this?” Mabel asked.

“Because it’s fun,” Venus giggled.

“There’s no need for us to fight,” Pentagram said. “I just want to talk with you.”

“What did you do to The Illuminator!?” Mabel shouted angrily.

“Now, now, there’s no reason to have that sort of tone,” Pentagram tutted. “The better question is, what did Pine Tree do to him.”

“Stop this,” Mabel demanded and flew closer to Pentagram. “I know you have something to do with this behavior, and I know it has something to do with Venus. Now tell me what it is!”

“All we did was help bring out his emotions,” Pentagram shrugged. “It’s not our fault he hates Pine Tree so much.”

“What are you getting out of this?” Mabel asked. “I know what she gets out of it; she does this sort of thing for shits and giggles, but what about you?”

“Why, there’s only one thing I want,” Pentagram smiled sweetly, before his expression turned. “Complete control over this entire world. Once I’m in control, Meliors will no longer have to be ashamed of who they are; that’s something you can go along with, right?”

“… No,” Mabel said dumbfounded. “I don’t care what you’re going to do if you get control! You won’t ever get that far! Pine Tree and I, along with every other hero on this planet, will stop you!”

“Oh, you will now?” Pentagram’s hand started to glow a light cyan color and Mabel found her body glowing with the same color; suddenly she could no longer move her body. “I had hoped that you’d accept my proposition of becoming my queen-“

“Never!” Mabel cut him off with an angry shout.

“But I don’t mind forcing you to love me, until you actually do.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Mabel could see Venus fly closer to her, holding a weird-looking collar. Mabel didn’t know what it was, but it had bad news written all over it.

However, before Venus could get close to Mabel, a blue fireball shot between them.

“Get away from her,” Mabel looked up and saw that Dipper had come to her rescue, along with The Illuminator.

“Ah, Illuminator,” Pentagram said with a tight smile on his face. “I see you are now working with Pine Tree… Have you already forgotten what he did to you?”

“Pine Tree’s my friend,” The Illuminator responded. “He never betrayed me. I am no longer your puppet. Now, let Shooting Star go.”

“Venus, be a darling and take care of them.”

“I’ll handle Venus,” The Illuminator told Dipper. “You free Shooting Star, then the two of you can tag-team Pentagram; he can only concentrate his powers on one thing at the time.”

“Got it,” Dipper nodded and ran off to engage Pentagram in battle.

Pentagram looked between Dipper and Mabel, knowing that he was about to face a fight he couldn’t win.

“Surrender, Pentagram,” Dipper said. “And nobody has to get hurt.”

“Oh, I won’t surrender,” Pentagram glared at Dipper before releasing Mabel. “But I will be retreating!”

In a cyan flash, Pentagram was gone, having teleported out.

“What!?” Dipper and Mabel turned their heads to Venus, who had stopped her fight with The Illuminator when she saw Pentagram teleporting away. “That bastard just left me!? Well, then all bets are off!”

Venus threw the collar to the ground, where Dipper picked it up.

“You’re helping us?” Dipper asked suspiciously.

“Oh, not exactly,” Venus smiled and shook her head. She flew over to a switch on the wall and pulled it; red lights started blaring and the building began to shake. “Let’s see how you handle this~” she winked before flying upwards, breaking through the ceiling and sending pieces of the roof flying.

“She pulled the self-destruction switch!” The Illuminator warned as the trio gathered together. Chunks of the building were falling everywhere, making escape difficult. “This whole building is about to collapse on us!”

“How are we gonna get out!?” Dipper shouted, beginning to panic.

“Get under me!” The Illuminator shouted, pulling Dipper and Mabel to the ground, using his body along with his trench coat to protect them.

The sound of rock and concrete breaking off, falling, and getting crushed when it hit the ground filled Dipper’s ears. The violent shaking put him in a state of unease, fearing that at any moment the ground would swallow him up. Finally, as quickly as it began, the shaking stopped, and a few moments later, everything was quiet, except for Dipper, Mabel, and The Illuminator, all breathing heavily.

During the destruction, Dipper had closed his eyes, too scared to keep them open, but now that it was seemingly over, he felt that he had to open them again, and what he saw shocked him; pieces of the ceiling must have hit The Illuminator’s transformation stone, forcing him to go back to his civilian form, because the person currently protecting him and Mabel was not The Illuminator, it was Bill.

“Did I… save you?” Bill gasped, a small smirk on his lips, before his eyes closed and he fainted, most likely because of the pain.

Dipper and Mabel got out from under The Illuminator, or Bill, and stared at him for a moment.

“Bill… Bill was The Illuminator all along?” Dipper exclaimed, feeling shocked and dumbfounded at the reveal.

“Looks like it,” Mabel shrugged, evidently not as surprised as Dipper. She began digging away the rocks that had landed on top of Bill, and dragged one of his arms over her shoulder. “Hey, give me a hand, Dipper.”

Dipper took Bill’s other armed, dragging it over his shoulder too. Once they left the warehouse, the two let their transformation wear off.

“So, what’s the plan?” Mabel asked. “Call a cab?”

“We can’t call a cab while we’re dragging an unconscious man away from a recently destroyed warehouse!” Dipper retorted. “We’ll drag him to the nearest club, and then we’ll call a cab. At least that won’t look as suspicious.”

“In the meantime, you mind telling me what happened after The Illuminator shot you out of the building?” Mabel asked. Dipper began to explain, keeping his voice low in case anyone was listening.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After reaching a nearby club, Dipper called a cab on his cell phone. The ride home took place mostly in silence, while Dipper was thinking about this new piece of information; Bill was The Illuminator. The obnoxious, annoying guy, who was always talking bad about The Illuminator, was The Illuminator. It blew his mind, how could they be the same person?

When they arrived home, Mabel paid for the cab fare, and the two siblings dragged Bill inside their house.

“Alright, let’s put him on the couch,” Mabel said, but was cut off by Dipper.

“Wait, I’ll put him in my room,” Dipper insisted. “I want to talk to him once he wakes up.”

“Oh, I bet there’s another reason you’d like to him on your bed,” Mabel waggled her eyebrows in an exaggerated fashion, making her meaning clear.

“Not now, Mabel,” Dipper sighed, sounding as tired as he felt. “Go to bed, you need some sleep. We’ll talk tomorrow.”

“Alright, try and get some sleep too,” Mabel added before retiring to her bedroom, leaving Dipper to drag Bill into his room.

Once inside his room, Dipper carefully lied Bill down on the bed, placing him on his stomach to avoid applying pressure to the broken transformation stone. Dipper quickly realized however that he had no idea how to take care of a broken transformation stone. The Illuminator had once compared it to a broken bone, was he supposed to put bandages around it? Plaster and a cast? Band-Aids? He had no idea!

Hesitantly, Dipper pulled up Bill’s shirt to get a better look at the transformation stone, but he was shocked at what he found; Bill’s transformation stone was huge! Not just that, but it looked like someone had welded multiple transformation stones together, the result being a giant glob of colors and shapes. And besides being broken, looking somewhat like a geode, what with the usual smooth surface of the stone now being broken apart and missing huge chunks, it looked like the stone had already begun to heal itself.

“You can touch it, you know,” Dipper let out a small squeak in surprise, looking over at Bill who was already awake, smirking at him as if everything was completely normal and the last three weeks hadn’t happened.

“I can’t believe you!” Dipper glared at Bill. “You just discovered that I’m Pine Tree, revealed your secret identity to me, and you have a serious injury! Why are you joking around at a time like this?!”

“Sorry,” Bill smiled, but it looked like he was trying to conceal a more pained expression. “I’ve never really been in this kind of situation before.”

They were both quiet for a moment, unsure of what to say.

“So…” Dipper began after a while. “You realize now that I’m not afraid of you, right?”

“You should be,” Bill mumbled, just loud enough for Dipper to hear him. “I almost killed you.”

“That wasn’t you,” Dipper insisted. “Just like that fear wasn’t me.”

“You don’t understand,” Bill shook his head. “In that moment, I was prepared; I was ready to actually kill you… You don’t what that feels like…”

“It wasn’t you,” Dipper repeated and placed a hand on Bill’s shoulder. “I can’t imagine what it must feel like, to be constantly pumped with anger…”

“I just want to forget about it,” Bill sighed.

“… Why did you never tell me?” Dipper asked. “About your true identity, I mean?”

“The Illuminator is my true identity,” Bill replied. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there isn’t exactly much to Bill Cipher. I’ve spent more time as The Illuminator than I have as Bill Cipher, along with most of my other identities, and almost half of my life as The Illuminator.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you never told me.”

“Because you hate Bill! I don’t know why, but you do, and if you found out that I was The Illuminator before I had a chance to change your opinion on me, you would’ve left me!”

“I don’t hate you, Bill,” Dipper responded softly. “It’s just- you’re always teasing me and making fun of me, and-“

“You mean my flirting?” Bill shot Dipper a confused look. “I wasn’t trying to make fun of you. Most of the time, I was hitting on you, but at other times I thought we were, you know, having witty banter.”

“… Back in high school, there was a girl who invited me out as a joke,” Dipper responded. “I said yes, and she laughed in my face, asking why anyone would ever want to waste a second of their lives with me.”

“I’d waste my entire life with you,” Bill replied, sounding surprisingly sincere. Dipper blushed and looked away, having not expected that kind of answer. “Why didn’t you tell me? About being Pine Tree?”

“Well, it’s like you said,” Dipper shrugged. “I was the first human in a long time who didn’t fear you… If it turned out I was Melior, you might not-“

“The first person,” Bill interrupted. “That includes Meliors too. What’s more important is how you always defended me, even against myself…”

“You mean when you were talking badly about The Illuminator? Did you really mean that?”

“Every word,” Bill nodded. “But you didn’t. You told me that… I wasn’t a monster, that I was a hero… I wanted so much to live up to that… But I failed…”

“No, no you didn’t,” Dipper insisted. “The Illuminator will always be my hero…” Dipper tentatively placed a hand on Bill’s cheek, stroking it gently. Bill leaned into touch, placing one of his hands over Dipper’s.

“I was always so scared of accidently hurting you,” Bill said. “Cutting you, or biting you… I was always trying to be so careful…”

“Bill,” Dipper sighed, knowing he had to bring this subject up. “I want to know what happened to you… Why does your transformation stone look like that?”

“You sure you want to know?” Bill asked. “It’s not exactly a pleasant story…”

“Do you want to tell me?” Dipper responded. Bill nodded slowly. “Then tell me.”

“Tomorrow,” Bill said and yawned. “Mabel needs to know it too…”

Bill was about to get up from the bed, when Dipper forced him back down.

“Where are you going?” Dipper asked.

“To the couch?”

“You’re not sleeping on the couch tonight.”

“Why not? It’s more comfortable than where I usually sleep.”

“You’re injured. You’re sleeping in my bed tonight.”

“My, Porcupine, so forward~” Bill teased, earning him a small smack on the shoulder from Dipper. “I know, I know, that’s not what you meant. But I probably won’t be sleeping anyway.”

“Why?”

“I have some… other powers,” Bill explained. “Powers I can’t entirely control yet, because I’m trying to suppress them; sometimes when I go to sleep, instead of dreaming, I wind up in some kind of… dream hub-world. There are multiple doors, each one representing someone nearby who is also asleep, dreaming… And I can choose to either enter someone else’s dream, or go through the entire night without once entering REM, which means no rest.”

“You can enter my dream,” Dipper replied.

“Dipper, if I enter your dream, I enter your mind,” Bill continued. “I’m just gonna screw something up or-“

“Bill,” Dipper lied down in the bed beside Bill. “You need this. You need a good night’s rest after everything. Promise me that if your powers get activated, you’ll enter my dreams.”

Bill was quiet for a moment, just staring at Dipper in awe, but finally, he nodded, and the two went to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When most people are asleep, they aren’t conscious of their actions, which is why when Dipper suddenly felt himself get conscious, but still found himself asleep, he knew something was going on.

“This is what you wanted, right?” Dipper felt clawed hands embrace him from behind. He looked up and saw The Illuminator, or Bill but in his form, standing behind him.

“Yeah,” Dipper nodded. “I’m glad you listened to me.”

“It took a couple of hours before I actually entered your dream,” Bill explained. “I was convinced you had just been trying to be courteous, and didn’t actually want me inside your head.”

Dipper sighed, but didn’t argue any further.

“Is there anything you want?” Bill asked. “Any place you want to see?”

“Uh, I’ve never really been to a real beach before,” Dipper shrugged, and suddenly he found himself, lying with The Illuminator, on white sand beach at sunset. The sand still warm from the setting sun, a cool breeze kissing his skin, and the orange and red light sparkling in the otherwise dark water. “This is nice…”

“At least like this, I can give you what you deserve,” Bill said, taking one of Dipper’s hands in his own, kissing the back of it.

“Bill…” Dipper asked tentatively. “Are we… back together?”

“Do you want us to be?”

“I do, but only if you want to,” Dipper replied and leaned into Bill. “I understand why you might not want to…”

“I’m pretty sure that’s my line,” Bill chuckled. “But I do want to be with you… I’ve missed you so much… I love you…”

Dipper gasped at the confession.

“I m-mean,” Bill stuttered before taking a deep breath. “No, I won’t take it back; I love you, Dipper… You don’t have to say it back… I just want to be by your side…”

Dipper turned around in Bill’s embrace and kissed him. It was small and chaste, but it got the point across.

“I love you too, Bill,” Dipper said and kissed him again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright! Next chapter we are going to learn The Illuminator's entire backstory, so I hope you're hyped for that! Next thing I update will probably be my Abducted fic, but I'm not too sure
> 
> Please leave a comment if you want to, I love to receive comments:3


	13. Episode 12: The Story of Alex Caine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bill finally tells Dipper and Mabel about his past, and everything that happened leading up to the events in last chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god! I think this may be the longest chapter I've ever written! It's over 10,000 words long! There was originally going to be more, but I felt that would make it too long, so I'm thinking about making future chapters, at least one, a flashback to an event in Bill's past. We'll seeX3

Dipper was awoken by a ray of sunlight from the window right above his bed, the light glaring behind his eyelids. After a few moments of making annoyed facial expressions, trying to shut his eyelids closer together, he finally opened his eyes, intending to pull the curtains on his window over his bed. But just as he opened his eyes, he felt a dip in his bed, and the curtains were pulled.

Dipper looked up and saw that it was Bill who had pulled the curtains, at the moment standing on his knees in the bed to reach the curtains.

“Good morning,” Dipper said as the events of the previous day caught up with him.

“Sorry if I woke you up,” Bill responded and lied back down in bed. “It looked like the sunlight was bothering you, so…”

“Were you… watching me sleep?” Dipper asked.

“… Yes,” Bill confessed after an awkward pause. “Is that… weird?”

“N-not really,” Dipper mumbled. “I mean, we were sleeping in the same bed, so… I’m more confused why you would want to.”

“I like looking at you, period,” Bill replied.

Dipper responded by blushing and letting out an embarrassed squeak. Their conversation was interrupted by a knock on Dipper’s door.

“Hey, boys,” Mabel called from the other side. “Breakfast’s ready, so finish whatever you’re doing, get dressed, and meet me in the living room.”

“Mabel!” Dipper screeched. “We’re just talking!”

“Sure, sure,” Mabel giggled and they heard the sound of her walking away from the door.

“Well, guess it’s time to get up,” Dipper shrugged and attempted to get out of bed, but Bill grabbed him and held him back.

“Do we really have to?” he asked, smirking widely. “I mean, if your sister is already assuming…”

“We are not going to have sex right now,” Dipper responded deadpanned.

“I was actually going to suggest making out, but now that you mention it…”

“Bill, no.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

After getting dressed, the two went into the living room; because of the lack of a dining room and the small size of the kitchen, the twins usually ate their food there, sitting in the couch or one of the two armchairs. After a very quiet and very awkward breakfast, Bill suddenly spoke;

“So, I know you’re both wondering about me,” he said after taking a deep breath.

“I think we both have a few questions,” Mabel responded, nodding her head slightly.

“I’m going to tell you everything,” Bill said. “First of all, my birth name isn’t Bill Cipher; it’s Alex Caine.”

“You said you didn’t have a family,” Dipper interjected. “Was that true? How much of what you told us was true?”

“All of it,” Bill replied. “I never knew my family, and I don’t know what happened to them… I grew up in… the IMP.”

“That name sounds familiar,” Mabel mumbled.

“The Institute of Melior Psychology,” Dipper whispered. “Wasn’t that the people Pyro worked for?”

“Yes,” Bill nodded and took a deep breath. “I’ll tell you everything…”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Bill’s earliest memories were from when he was only three. His entire world had been made up of white rooms, scarcely furnished, and tall people wearing coats and holding clipboards. The people wanted to know what Bill’s powers were, but the small child named Alex couldn’t answer that, he wasn’t even sure if he had any powers.

The tall people started giving Alex toys, many colorful and interesting ones, to play with. They said that if he used his powers, he’d get more toys, better ones even, but Alex couldn’t use his powers, and the toys were taken away again. Five months of fun and play in an otherwise dreary existence…

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

When Alex fell asleep, sometimes he’d find himself in a dark room; the room was pitch-black and filled with many doors, all in different colors and shapes, each one with a unique symbol on it. When that happened, he would enter one of the doors closest to him. Inside he’d find someone else; they’d usually be surprised to see him, but not seem to mind his presence.

One night when Alex was five, he found a door he’d never seen before and entered it. Inside he met someone he recognized; a middle-aged man who sometimes visited Alex, with a nametag saying “Dr. Graves” on his white coat. The man was seemingly getting attacked by some kind of monster. This wasn’t the first time Alex had witnessed a situation like this, and the small child rushed forth, golden light flowing from his body as the monster disappeared.

“A-Alex?” Dr. Graves stuttered, looking surprised to see Alex. “This… This has t-to be a dream,” the doctor shook his head. “But it doesn’t feel like a dream…”

“Of course i’sa dream,” Alex responded, surprised at the doctor’s reaction. “Is your dream, but I entered it!”

“You can do that!?” Dr. Graves exclaimed, his eyes widening in surprise.

“You mean, not ev’ryone does that?” Alex tilted his head in confusion.

“How long have you been doing this?”

“Whe’ever it happens,” Alex shrugged and kicked his feet, already feeling like he was having another one of those boring conversations with the doctors. “But this is the first time I’ve seen your door!”

“My… door?” Dr. Graves frowned.

“The door I entered your dreams through!” Alex responded like it was self explanatory.

“That’s right… I fell asleep at my office tonight,” Dr. Graves mumbled to himself. “This is wonderful, Alex! We’ve finally discovered your powers!”

It should have been wonderful, and for a while it was. Alex finally had access to toys again, this time permanently. Instead of exhausting tests and boring conversations to find out what his powers were, he was given more free time, and the bit of time spent on tests centered on basic physical and mental health, along with tests to further explore his powers.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Alex was nine when he met another child for the first time; Dr. Archer had brought his daughter, Tiffany, to work. She was a young girl at around five or six. She had been sitting in the room while Dr. Archer was asking Alex some questions. Alex was unable to focus on the questions as he was too focused on Tiffany; he didn’t even know there were people out there smaller than him. Tiffany had suddenly interrupted the line of questioning with one of her own:

“Will you be my boyfriend?” the question was direct and clueless, in the way only a small child could ask.

“Tiffany!” her father scolded her with a harsh tone. “You can’t just ask that!”

“Why not, daddy?” the little girl asked. “Is it ‘cause he’s a Me-li-or?” she said the last word carefully, like she didn’t want to accidently mispronounce it.

Alex knew that he was a Melior of course, he had been told that, but he thought everyone was that.

“Isn’t Tiffany a Melior?” Alex asked.

“No, of course not,” Dr. Archer said.

“Are you a Melior?” Alex continued to ask.

“Eh…” Dr. Archer hesitated.

“How many of the people working here are Melior?”

“Well, if you count our patients as workers, then…” Dr. Archer let out an awkward cough before putting on a fake-looking and somewhat condescending smile. “You see, Alex, different people have different talents and gift, and that’s the point of our Institute! Now, we believe that your people have wonderful abilities that can be used to better the world, but you also need normal people, like us, to handle you.”

“I don’t need to be handled!” Alex glared angrily at Dr. Archer, who visibly shrank back at his small outburst.

“Okay, Tiffany and I will leave now, and I’ll call the nice security, and they’ll show you back to your room,” Dr. Archer said very quickly as he grabbed Tiffany by the arm and dragged her out of the room.

After getting a stern talking to by the head of security, and being forcefully escorted to his room, Alex found Tiffany waiting there.

“What are you doing here?” Alex asked the small girl.

“You never answered my question,” Tiffany said.

“No, I mean, how did you get here? Your dad’s gonna be furious if he finds you here!”

“I ran away from daddy’s office,” Tiffany looked down sadly. “He didn’t even notice I left…”

“I’m sorry,” Alex said, sympathizing with the little girl. “I don’t know where my parents are.”

“Did you lose them?” Tiffany asked. “Sometimes, I lose my daddy or mommy, but I always find them again.”

“No,” Alex shook his head. “For as long as I can remember, I’ve lived here, and never even known who my parents are… For a long time I thought they were dead, but… what if they left me here?”

“Why would they leave you here?”

“I thought everyone was Melior… but they’re not… And if my parents weren’t Melior, then… they probably left me here…”

“I don’t understand,” Tiffany shook her head in confusion.

“This isn’t the first time someone reacted like your dad to me,” Alex explained. “Now I know why; normal people are scared of Meliors… scared of me…”

“But you aren’t scary!” Tiffany protested. “You’re nice! That’s why I want you to be my boyfriend.”

“I’m sorry, but I’m not really looking for a relationship,” Alex chuckled. “Besides, I don’t think your dad would approve. But I’d like to be your friend.”

“Okay, we can be friends,” Tiffany pouted slightly as she said so. “But only if you promise to find me a new boyfriend!”

“I promise,” Alex laughed happily.

It only took an hour or so before security nearly knocked down Alex’s door, grabbing Tiffany and removing her from Alex’s room. Alex spent his first time in the isolation box; a sensory deprivation room the Institute used to punish their patients. The doctors insisted that it wasn’t a punishment, that it was just a room designed to let Meliors let off some steam and calm down, and they were partially right; it wasn’t a punishment, it was pure torture. The room was a decent size and air did circulate through it, but that wasn’t the problem; the room was complete dark, so dark you couldn’t see a thing no matter how long you were there. The room was also made of a special material that didn’t just block out sound, it killed sound, every single sound from your steps to your breathing, creating the kind of quiet that the human mind can’t stand, the kind of quiet that forces it to create auditory hallucinations just to avoid hearing the sound of your own beating heart and squirming organs.

Somehow, Alex managed to endure an entire hour of that, consoling himself with the thought of finally having a friend. But the next time he saw Tiffany, she ran crying away from him over to her dad. It seemed like Alex’s first thought had been correct; normal people feared Melior.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

A few years later, Alex cringed at the reasoning behind his conclusion, seeing for the small-minded, overdramatic nonsense it was, but his conclusion hadn’t changed. After learning that most, if not all, of the doctors were not Melior, he couldn’t help but see fear in their eyes every time he as much as breathed differently; a small gasp, an involuntary tightening of various muscles, pupils dilating, all signs of fear.

When he was eleven, he got introduced to others like him; Meliors who were being studied at the Institute. They were all different ages and wielded varying powers, some could control theirs, others couldn’t and the Institute had taken different precautions to prevent accidents due to said uncontrollable powers.

One of the Meliors that stood out to him was a grown man; he wore glasses and had an odd accent that Alex couldn’t place. The man wore gloves. When Alex asked him why, the man said that he couldn’t control his powers and he didn’t want to; he just wanted to get rid of them.

“Why do you want that?” Alex asked, staring at the man confused. “If you just learned to control them, there wouldn’t be any problems!”

“It’s not just that,” the man said. “I… My powers are to erase people’s memories… Sometimes I even erase their entire minds… I thought I could live my life just keeping gloves on my hands, but I couldn’t and… I erased my wife and son’s minds…” the man looked like he was about to cry. “That’s why I got here. The people here are working on a way to remove Melior powers, to make us normal. That way, I’ll never hurt anyone ever again.”

“… I’m sorry,” Alex whispered sadly, he couldn’t imagine how that man felt. “But I didn’t know the doctors were trying to make us normal!” Alex tilted his head in thought. “I don’t really wanna get rid of my powers…”

“I’m sure they’re not going to force you,” the man chuckled. “That procedure is only for people like me, people who… who are too dangerous to have around…”

“I was told Meliors were needed to better the world,” Alex explained. “That our powers can help others… Did the doctors say anything about that?”

“I was offered a sort of position here,” the man nodded, his face turning sour. “But I don’t agree with their leader…”

“Mr. McGucket,” a doctor poked her head through the door. “It’s time for your next blood sample.”

“I’m coming,” the man said and followed the doctor out the door.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Only a year after meeting McGucket, when Alex was twelve, something happened. Alex had already experienced various medical examinations, even a couple of operations where the doctors opened him and examined how his transformation stone was connected to his body. This time around seemed to be just like that; he was lying on an operation table, on his stomach, one of the doctors took his arm and pressed a needle inside, injecting him with anesthesia.

Alex felt the drug beginning to work, steadily putting to sleep, and soon he found himself in the dark room with all the doors. He spotted a door he hadn’t seen before, and decided he might as well examine it while waiting for the procedure to be over. Inside the door he found McGucket, his dream a black nothingness.

“Hi again,” Alex waved cheerfully.

“Oh, hello,” McGucket waved back. “Um, what are you doing here?”

“It’s my power!” Alex explained. “I can enter other people’s dreams. Why are you asleep?”

“It seems the Institute made a breakthrough,” McGucket replied with a small smile. “They’ve found a way to remove transformation stones without killing the one it’s connected to. When I wake up, I’ll be normal…”

“I’m happy to hear that,” Alex smiled back albeit not one hundred percent sincerely. He was happy that McGucket would get rid of his powers, especially since said powers had ruined his life, but Alex could never imagine the idea of having his powers removed as anything but bad.

Before either of them had a chance to continue the conversation, they both noticed something was wrong with McGucket; his hands were fading away fast, and the fading was spreading up his arms to the rest of his body.

“W-what’s going on!?” McGucket stuttered, his voice and expression full of panic as he looked around the blackness for answers.

“I don’t know!” Alex stepped back, overcome with fear for what he was seeing. “This has never happened before!”

Not another word was said before McGucket disappeared, Alex finding himself back in the room with all the doors. What had he just witnessed? Had it been his doing? Whatever had happened, Alex didn’t want to go through any more of these doors, not until he knew what was going on.

Alex had no idea how long he just sat there and waited, but after being stuck with his thoughts and creeping guilt for a while, he awoke in the real world, feeling tired due to the lingering effects of the anesthesia, and an intense pain in his back.

“How are you feeling, Alex?” One of the doctors asked him.

Alex moaned in pain and tried to sit up, only to be forced back down again.

“Answer us, Alex,” the doctor insisted, her tone a bit harsher this time.

“My… back hurts…” Alex complained.

“Aside from that, is there anything else?”

“… No.”

“It seems the operation was a success,” the doctor happily told the other doctors in the room. “We will have to test out his abilities, of course, to see if the transfer worked as desired.”

“What… what did you do to me?” Alex asked, panic and fear seizing his entire being.

Alex later found out what had happened; the doctors had removed Mr. McGucket transformation stone and operated it into Alex. They insisted that McGucket was just fine and had already left the facility, since he was no longer a Melior, but Alex thought differently. Soon, the doctors wanted Alex to use McGucket’s powers too, on living people no less! They said that Alex needed to control those powers, but why? What was the point of removing those powers from McGucket just to transfer them to Alex? Besides that, Alex could understand needing to control his new powers so that he didn’t erase the mind of every single person he came into contact with, but… the doctors made him erase entire minds… not just a few memories, entire minds.

That was just the beginning. During the next two years, more transformation stones were operated into Alex. He didn’t know who the stones belonged to; the doors of the people appeared in front of Alex when he was sedated, but he didn’t want to go in there, not after what had happened during the first operation, and soon, right in front of him, those doors disappeared.

The many new transformation stones also had an effect on his ‘form; his original ‘form had been a minor transformation, like most ‘forms; tall and slender, with piercing eyes and golden hair, but now… his ‘form looked like a monster… Even the doctors who monitored Alex showed obvious fear and disgust at his ‘form.

The worst, however, was yet to come…

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

When Alex was fourteen, he did something drastic; he broke into one of the doctors’ offices and into the computer files. After searching, he found files for something called “The Darwin Project”:

Test Subject 001  
Test Subject 014  
Test Subject 019  
Test Subject 033  
Alt. Research

Aside from those files, there also were two folders, one labeled “Failed Subjects”, and another labeled “Donors”.

Alex opened the file “Test Subject 001” and got a long line of text;

“Test Subject 001, Alex Caine: Mr. Caine has been the first successful test subject of The Darwin Project, and is so far the subject with most transformation stones operated into his body. Despite being our youngest subject, he has so far been the most successful, and we are still concocting research on why that is. Some have suggested his youth may be the reason, but after the failures of Test Subject 017 and 028, most have reached the conclusion that, that is not the case.”

There was more, but Alex couldn’t stand to read a word more of it, already feeling somewhat ill at what he had just read. He opened the next file;

“Test Subject 014, Miriam Webster: Mrs. Webster is so far the oldest subject to have been successful, currently having had three transformation stones operated into her…”

Like Alex’s file, it just went on and on, and Alex didn’t want to read it, he couldn’t! He didn’t read the other files, but went into the folder labeled “Failed Subjects”. The folder was massive, filled with files, the first labeled “Test Subject 002” and the very last one labeled “Test Subject 062”. Alex opened a random one and read it, trying to brace himself from what he was about to discover;

“Test Subject 051, Gerald Fischer. Status: Deceased, Cause: Shock from Operation. Mr. Fischer survived two operations, but went into shock during the third, leading to his death on…”

Alex stopped reading and picked another one;

“Test Subject 038, Kimberly Ashworth. Status: Deceased, Cause: Suicide. While Ms. Ashworth managed to survive an impressive number of five operations, it seems the procedures had taken a toll on her mental health, leading to her suicide on…”

Alex closed the file, picking another one, but no matter how many he picked, they were all the same; shock, coma, internal bleeding, suicide, training accident, killed by security, dead, dead, dead, DEAD.

Alex backed out of the folder and decided to read the file titled “Alt. Research”;

“So far, it has been apparent that only Meliors can handle the transformation stone operation. No ordinary human subject has been successful; the ones who do not die during operation, has certain mental changes that require further research. Many humans who survive the transition to Melior come out more aggressive, even rapid, in ways similar to a wild animal. Many more seem to experience a warped perception, if not outright insanity. However, termination of these subjects should not be done, as they can still be of use for The Darwin Project.

We are still lacking an operational procedure that safely removes transformation stones without killing the host. Further research will be needed, as this is vital to The Darwin Project…”

That made Alex freeze… McGucket had said they had found a way to safely remove transformation stones; that was why Alex had McGucket’s stone. Suddenly Alex felt very apprehensive about clicking on the folder titled “Donors”. He forced himself to do so, and inside he found a list of names, all alphabetical. This folder was even bigger than the “Failed Subjects” one. Alex scrolled down until he reached “M.” and he found it:

“McGucket, F.: Powers: Memory Erasure. Stone: Used on Test Subject 001.”

This entire Darwin Project folder painted a very clear picture of what IMP was doing, but all Alex could think of in that moment was that McGucket was dead…

Alex shut down the computer, making sure to leave no trace of evidence that he had been there. He returned to his room and lied down in his bed, just thinking about everything he had discovered.

A few hours later, there was a knock on the door, and a doctor entered.

“Alex, it’s time for your next procedure,” she said cheerfully.

“It hasn’t even been a month since the last one,” Alex tried his best not to sound whiny, but he was feeling very apprehensive; he now knew where all those transformation stones came from, every single stone in his back belonged to someone who was now dead. Having another stone inserted only meant two things; more abilities to master, and someone had died.

“I know you don’t like the procedure,” the doctor responded in a condescending tone. “But the work we’re doing here is very important. So, let’s go to the operating room, and afterwards, I’ll make sure you get a special treat!”

“No,” Alex mumbled, not moving from his bed.

“E-excuse me?” the doctor frowned, her smile gone.

“I’m not gonna do it anymore,” Alex asserted, trying to sound as determined and unyielding as he could.

“Alex,” the doctor’s tone turned stern. “You need to cooperate with us.”

“Or else what?” Alex challenged, standing up from bed before transforming. The doctor took a hesitant step back, her eyes widened with fear.

“N-now, now, Alex,” she stuttered. “If you don’t calm down, I’ll be forced to call security! Do we really need to send you back into the isolation box?”

“I’m not gonna obey you anymore!” Alex roared, firing a ball of fire at the doctor.

Everything that transpired afterwards was a blur; Alex ran out of his room and down the corridor, several people spotted him, some tried to stop him and were hit with another fireball, others stepped out of the way. An alarm started blaring while a calm voice over the speakers told everyone not to panic, that security were on their way.

Bill could vaguely remember fighting some security guards, but the amount of adrenaline in his system at the time, coupled with how long ago it was, made it difficult to remember accurately what had happened.

What Bill mostly remembered was what happened after escaping the facility.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The facility was located in a rather remote area, surrounded by miles of untamed nature. Alex had fled into a forest, picked a random direction, and just walked. It had taken days, days filled with wandering, looking for food, water, and shelter, and cold nights where he could barely sleep, but he finally exited the forest to find a small town.

Alex was starving, dirty, and tired, and the people in the town could easily see that. Many adults approached him, asking him what his name was, where he lived, and where his parents were. Alex knew he couldn’t give out his real name; it would only make it easier for the IMP to find him, so he gave himself a new name: Maxwell Williams.

He found a kind-hearted family who was willing to take him in for the night. They gave him clean clothes, a warm meal, and even a bed to sleep in. They had said that they would help Maxwell find the police station the next morning, but Maxwell couldn’t allow that. So he got up early that next morning, left a note apologizing to the family for leaving, and left. Maxwell left the town and kept wandering until he found another one, this one slightly bigger than the previous.

This time, however, there was no nice family willing to take him in, and Maxwell had been forced to find shelter in the town’s park, but had been attacked by a mugger. The mugger quickly realized that Maxwell had nothing of value on him and left, but the lingering feeling of the mugger’s attack stayed with Maxwell. He had never thought people did that; that people would threaten other’s lives for money. He didn’t want anyone to experience that, or any other form of cruelty this world had hidden, so therefore, he decided to become a hero.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

One year is all the time he spent as Maxwell. The people in the town didn’t seem to like him, seemed scared of him, and Maxwell didn’t know why; he was helping them! So what if he was a Melior, he still stopped the bad guys.

When Maxwell was fifteen, he had been forced to flee the town; people from the IMP had come looking for him, brandishing posters of both his normal self and ‘form, and one year hadn’t done much to change the young boy’s looks, so he fled.

He reached his first urban city, and created a new identity; William Faust. He kept quiet for a few months, mostly focusing on finding any kind of shelter and some way to get food, but the crime in this big city was even worse than that of the small town. William knew he had to do something, so after those few months, he started saving the day again, to similar if not even worse results from the public.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

William had been on his way home to his small shelter in one of the city’s alleyways, still in his ‘form, but when he arrived he found someone there; another Melior from the looks of it, rummaging through his things.

“Hey, what are you doing!?” William shouted as he approached the young woman. She turned around, a surprised look on her face.

“I thought… this place was free,” she said, her tone making it obvious that she was lying.

“If you wanna rob someone, go with someone richer than literally-lives-on-the-streets,” William rolled his eyes with sigh.

“I… I hadn’t expected you to live here,” she responded.

“You know who I am?” William asked, raising his eyebrows in surprise.

“You’re that guy- that Melior whose been going around saving people, right? I expected a guy like you to be better off than, well, me.”

“You’d be surprised,” William let out another sigh; he sensed no ill intentions from the young woman, and decided to let his guard down, mostly because it’d been far too long since he had a conversation with someone. “So, judging from what said before, I assume you live on the streets too; why?”

“Don’t wanna talk about it,” she slumped against the wall, crossing her arms, not in a defensive way, but more like she was trying to stay warm.

“You’re Melior too, right?” William asked. “What are your powers?”

“We share some powers, actually,” she shot him a smile. “I’m a pyromancer; I can control fire, well, somewhat control!” she let out a shaky laugh. “Sometimes, I can’t, and people can’t take it anymore, and… Anyway, my name’s Monica Cole. And you?”

William was about to tell her, but hesitated, and instead, he answered; “The Illuminator.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

After meeting with Monica, William started spending more and more time in his ‘form. He and Monica formed a sort of friendship. As the years passed, William and Monica created a new home to both of them, a small shelter in one of the back alleys of the city, and it didn’t take long for other homeless Meliors to find them. Soon, they had gathered a small gang of misfits, all working together to survive. William even got a part-time job to earn some money for their small family, and Monica even taught him how to ride a motorcycle.

However, trouble started when William was eighteen. The police discovered their hideout. Because the shelter was full of Meliors, the police had received permission to use lethal force. Three Meliors died, five Meliors and four police officers were severely wounded.

William had managed to flee the police, not wanting to risk getting caught by them. He didn’t know what they would do with him if they caught him, and he didn’t want to know. But unbeknownst to him, Monica had followed him.

She had been furious with him; shouting at him, asking him why he didn’t protect the others, why he didn’t fight the police until the very end, and William couldn’t answer that.

Monica decided that she wanted nothing more to do with William, and William decided that his time in this city might be at an end.

He relocated to another big city, and changed his name to Will Ridley.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

He only spent one year as Will Ridley. In that span of time he had managed to get a part-time job, even scraping enough money to buy himself a motorcycle, along with a license, and made a name for himself as The Illuminator; granted not a very good name, but he was still making a difference. Too bad that publicity was attracted the IMP, forcing Will to flee once more.

He was getting tired of running away from city to city; he just wanted to find a place to call his home. Finally, he reached a city in Oregon called “Gravity Falls”. He created another fake identity; Bill Cipher, and started putting his life in some semblance of order. He even found an old abandoned building he could live in, which was a big upgrade from sleeping in alleyways.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

It had only taken four months before Bill once again went out as The Illuminator; stopping crime, saving lives, even if people only had negative things to say about.

When Bill was twenty, the IMP showed up again, and Bill decided that enough was enough. In full public view, he beat all of the people IMP had sent, and people hadn’t been scared of him before, they certainly were now. Bill had also relayed a message to not only the IMP, but to all citizens of Gravity Falls; this was his town now, and he would protect it with his own life. It was supposed to be a heroic and bright speech, but it came out dark and violent.

The IMP started sending more people after Bill, but he managed to beat all of them , each time getting more and more agitated, until he finally had enough and mind wiped one of the IMP’s people. The IMP stopped trying to get him after that. As the years went by, Bill started using the mind wipe more and more, feeling justified in doing so; his powers allowed him to see deep inside people, and if he found them truly unredeemable, why shouldn’t he mind wipe them? It not only prevented them from ever committing another crime ever again, but it also created a great incentive for the people of Gravity Falls not to turn to crime.

Over the years, a lot of different heroes showed up, each of them wanting to take down Bill and gain the glory of being the one who saved Gravity Falls from The Illuminator; naturally, Bill took all of them out with no problems.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

It had seemed like another night’s work to Bill; save people, punish criminals, listen to people run away from him in terror. He had just saved someone from a mugger and was about to mind wipe said mugger, when he heard something he hadn’t expected;

“Stop!”

Bill paused, lowering his hand and turned in the direction of the sound, laying his eyes on the mugger’s victim. Bill could only stare at this remarkable young man, who was trying to save his attacker.

“… You’re still here?” Bill asked, feeling a kind of surprise he hadn’t felt in a long time; a positive one.

“Please, don’t do that,” the young man said. His stance was determined, unyielding, but his eyes were soft and begging, all of it coming across as pure and earnest to Bill, the kind of good you don’t normally find in this world.

Bill took another moment to study this enigmatic man, who had, at least to his knowledge, risked his own life to protect that of his attacker; this beautiful young man who couldn’t possibly be as good and pure as he came across.

Bill decided to follow the young man’s wishes, and knocked the mugger out instead of mind wiping him, letting the unconscious body drop to the floor like the trash it was.

“Don’t worry; he’s just asleep,” Bill assured the young man. Standing in front of him at full height, he looked positively tiny compared to Bill’s monstrous ‘form, and still he refused to flee. “What’s your name?”

“It’s… It’s Dipper,” he whispered. There was perhaps a trace of fear coming from him now, or at the very least this Dipper felt intimidated, which wasn’t very surprising, and yet he still stood tall, back straight, eyes staring directly into Bill’s.

“That’s an odd name,” Bill remarked with a small smile, trying to make this Dipper feel more at ease.

“It’s a nickname,” Dipper explained, already looking more comfortable in Bill’s presence. “Umm, thanks for saving me from that robber, and not turning him completely comatose,” Bill’s eyes darted to Dipper’s mouth as the young man bit his lower lip.

“You’re welcome,” Bill responded, not missing a beat, although he was surprised Dipper even took the time to thank him. “Is your home close to here?”

“Well, it’s a short walk,” Dipper said. “Just on the other side of this alleyway.”

“I don’t think you should walk through this alleyway,” Bill replied, not wanting him to encounter any more robbers, if not worse. For some reason, Bill already felt extremely protective of this young man, wishing to shield him from whatever evil wished to harm him, if only to protect that earnest goodness he exhibited. "You’re bound to meet more criminals, and not just robbers at that.”

“But I need to get home as quickly as possible,” Dipper protested.

“Then, would you like me to escort you?” Bill offered with a smile, never imagining that Dipper would take him up on said offer.

“Escort me?” Dipper repeated. Bill noticed the young man’s cheeks turn slightly red at Bill’s suggestion, and Bill couldn’t help but think that it suited the smaller man.

“Yes,” Bill smiled again. “After all, I’d be a poor hero if I just let you get attacked again.”

“A-alright,” Dipper stuttered, letting out a small shriek when Bill picked him up. As the young man clung to Bill, he could barely keep himself from grinning; for the first time ever, someone had appreciated getting rescued by him, had thanked him, hadn’t run away screaming.

“Do you want me to drop you off here?” Bill asked when he reached Dipper’s neighborhood.

“Uh, well you don’t have to,” Dipper responded, shrugging slightly. “I mean, I wouldn’t mind if you could take me straight to my door…”

“Okay,” Bill nodded slightly. He wondered why Dipper was so trusting of him, to let Bill know where he lived.

“It’s that two-story building, with the big sign saying: ‘Pines’ Plants’,” Dipper explained while pointing in the direction of his home.

Only a moment later, they had arrived, and Bill sat Dipper down gently, already missing the feeling of having him in his arms.

“Thanks again,” Dipper said, sending Bill a smile so brilliant it almost lit up the street.

“Anytime,” Bill said before leaving. Or at least pretended to leave. He hung out a little longer, making sure Dipper got safely inside his home. After that, he let his transformation wear off, deciding to walk home tonight. He walked by the shop Dipper had entered, and noticed a Help Wanted sign in the window. Bill had been looking for a job for a while, and this would give him an opportunity to get closer to Dipper, maybe even- but he was already getting ahead of himself.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The next day, Bill got up early. He put on his best clothes, which wasn’t all that fancy, but still the best he had, tried to make himself look at least somewhat presentable, before jumping on his motorcycle and driving back to the flower shop where Dipper worked.

The first thing to greet him when he entered the door was a good view of a very appealing ass, clad in tight jeans.

“One moment,” a voice that was unmistakably Dipper’s said. Bill smirked, stalking confidently up to the cash register to get a better view.

“Oh please, take all the time you need~” Bill responded as he took in the sight. “Although, I would like to know if someone with a butt that cute, has a matching face~”

Dipper straightened up and spun around, his cheeks cherry red and his expression indignant.

“Excuse me!?” he exclaimed.

“Oh, looks like you do~” Bill leaned in over the counter, getting a good look at Dipper, who looked positively adorable at that moment, and Bill couldn’t help but want more of it. “Can I have a name to go along with that face, or shall I just call you ‘cutie’?”

Somehow, Dipper’s blush got even worse, spreading further across his face.

“W-what?!” he stuttered. “Okay, look, what do you want?”

The rest of the day had gone by in a flash; Bill got the job, got plenty more opportunities to interact with Dipper, and even met Dipper’s sister, who seemed like a really fun woman.

After working as a delivery man for about a week however, it became clear that his job would interfere with his duties as a hero; because of a last minute delivery, he arrived too late to handle a hostage situation, instead meeting another Melior at the scene who was about to be taken down by the cops.

Bill knew he should probably just let the police arrest the Melior, but he couldn’t stop thinking about Dipper; Dipper wouldn’t let someone go to jail for trying to do the right thing. Bill knew he, at the very least, needed to get the Melior’s side of the story.

Bill had expected the Melior to be another wannabe-hero, in it for the fame, who would try to take down The Illuminator and take over his city, but that hadn’t been the case; the Melior was inexperienced, didn’t even have a name for his secret identity, but he was without a doubt trying his best to help. The Melior, Bill had dubbed him Pine Tree, reminded Bill of himself when he first started out as a hero. Pine Tree refused to stop trying to save people, so Bill decided to take the young hero under his wing, and they agreed to meet up another time for training.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The morning after meeting Pine Tree, when Bill showed up for work, he ended up having a conversation with Mabel about said hero.

“I don’t know a lot of heroes,” Bill shrugged when Mabel asked him about Pine Tree. “But I don’t recognize him, so for all I know, he’s new.”

“You’re absolutely sure?” Mabel asked, sounding like it was very important, but then again, he had seen her go on sites dedicated to Melior heroes and villains, so maybe she was just interested in that.

“I don’t know,” Bill shook his head. “I mean, I think he’s a new hero; I haven’t seen anyone wear a costume with that sigil.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty special,” Mabel nodded in agreement before spotting Dipper, who had just entered the room. ““Oh, Dip-Dop! Me and Bill were talking about what happened yesterday.”

The conversation stayed on the subject of the new hero, mainly discussing how his powers seemed to be controlling plants. Bill found it somewhat cute how interested Dipper seemed in those powers, probably the botanist in him, but also felt a small spark of jealousy, which he quickly did his best to suppress; there was no reason to be jealous, Dipper and Pine Tree would most likely never meet anyway.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

That night he met with Pine Tree for training; Bill wanted to mainly focus on hand-to-hand combat since it seemed like Pine Tree already had his powers under control, judging by how he handled those robbers.

What Bill hadn’t expected was what happened next; there had been a big crash in a nearby shopping strip, leading Bill and Pine Tree to check it out; what they found there shook Bill to his core. She looked a little different, older definitely, but that was still without a doubt Tiffany.

She said her name was now Giffany, and she seemed to wield some sort of electric powers, which of course concerned Bill, but the most unsettling part was her mind; the way she spoke, the way she acted, the things she said and did, if she hadn’t called Bill by his first name, Bill would have insisted over and over again that, that couldn’t possibly be Tiffany. He tried to help her, he really did, all the while thoughts of what could have possibly happened to her seeped into his mind.

Thanks to Pine Tree, they managed to defeat her by breaking her transformation stone, a transformation stone she shouldn’t even have, which only seemed to confirm Bill’s worst theory.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Weeks after the fight with Tiffany, something happened which convinced Bill once and for all that he was in love with Dipper.

He and Mabel had been in a conversation about The Illuminator, Mabel regarding the hero with a fear Bill was all too familiar with.

“It seems like most people around here don’t like The Illuminator a lot,” Mabel said while changing the display flowers out, throwing the old, withered ones out, and replacing them with new ones.

“More like every single person in Gravity Falls,” Bill argued; he knew what people thought about him. “Not even other Meliors like him, and what does that say about him?”

“I guess I can’t really blame them,” Mabel gave an awkward shrug. “He’s… well, you know…”

“A monster,” Bill finished.

“I guess he seems a bit… scary,” Mabel added.

“A bit?” Bill scoffed, wondering why Mabel was even trying to pick her words like that. “I’m surprised anyone even stays in the city with that monster running around.”

“Who are you talking about?” Dipper had arrived during their conversation and was leaning against a nearby wall.

“The Illuminator,” Mabel answered.

“What?” Dipper exclaimed in surprise. “Okay, the guy might look a little frightening at first, but that doesn’t mean he’s a monster.”

Bill was slightly surprised at Dipper’s defense, but almost on reflex mumbled; “He seems like a monster to me.”

“Seriously?” Dipper walked over to Bill and looked him right in the eye. “Are you one of those jerks who just assume that all Meliors are violent psychopaths?!”

That was a tricky question; Bill didn’t want to lie, but if he said no, the twins might suspect him of being a Melior.

“Well, a lot of people hold that belief,” Bill shrugged nonchalantly. “Why do you care?”

“Bill,” Mabel interjected in a soft tone. “Two of me and Dipper’s uncles were Melior.”

“And they were heroes at that!” Dipper added.

“Oh, right, your last name’s Pines, like Ford and Stan Pines,” Bill slapped his forehead in realization, he had forgotten about those two; heroes who had defended Gravity Falls before Bill came. “Look, I’m sure there’s a lot of nice Meliors out there, and your uncles were probably among them, but The Illuminator isn’t. I mean, have you seen what he does to criminals? That mind wipe thing he does?”

“To be fair, according to the news, he hasn’t done that lately,” Mabel argued much to Bill’s surprise.

“And so what?” Dipper ignored his sister and focused on Bill. “I don’t approve of his methods, but why in the world would you assume that someone who risks his own life to save others is a monster?!”

Bill really hadn’t expected an outburst like that; had he really made that big an impression on Dipper?

“I’m just saying what everyone in this city is thinking,” Bill frowned, feeling utterly baffled at Dipper defending him. “The Illuminator is a monst-“

He was interrupted by Dipper smacking his face with the palm of his hand, leaving Bill stunned into silence.

“You don’t ever talk about him like that,” Dipper growled.

“Why do you care about him so much?” Bill asked, genuinely confused.

“Because he saved my life,” Dipper replied.

Bill did his best to hide his surprise, but ever since then, he knew he had fallen in love with Dipper.

The rest of the day proceeded as normal as first, until evening rolled around; Dipper had somehow managed to get caught by a villain, who was keeping him hostage to force The Illuminator to show up. Bill hadn’t thought Dipper and The Illuminator would meet again, but then again, he hadn’t expected a situation like this would happen.

The original plan had been to get Dipper out of the danger zone, but instead he ended up helping Bill taking down the villain. When Bill remarked how he wished Pine Tree was there to tie up the villain, Dipper seemed to perk up. Bill felt a twinge of jealousy flare up again because of that reaction, but tried his best to hide it with a wall of nonchalance.

After breaking the villain’s transformation stone, the police was about to arrive, and Bill had to escape. He asked Dipper if he knew his way home from where they were, and when Dipper said no, Bill once again picked up the smaller man and carried him home.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

After celebrating the best Christmas ever with the Pines twins, including receiving his first Christmas presents ever, both from the twins and Pine Tree, Bill was starting to realize how much better his life had gotten after meeting Dipper.

His feelings for Dipper had only grown the previous months, and Bill knew he wanted to tell him that he loved him, but he was scared; Dipper seemed to really dislike him as Bill, and there was no way Dipper would ever say yes to The Illuminator.

On New Year’s Eve, when he met up with Pine Tree, and after Pine Tree had told him his New Year resolution, Bill asked him for advice. Bill explained how he wanted to tell the person he loved how he felt, but feared rejection, Pine Tree brushed it off, insisting that whoever Bill confessed to would be more than willing to accept. Above all however, Pine Tree said that honesty was important.

Honesty… what did that mean? There were so many things he could be honest about, all of which would most likely make Dipper run for the hills, but Pine Tree told him specifically to be honest about his true self, so Bill would have to figure out just who his true self was.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

It had taken more than a month for Bill to figure out what he wanted to do, and by that point, he’d decided to wait until Valentine’s Day. He had been nervous when Dipper first showed up, but the other man’s blushing and stuttering helped put Bill at ease, thinking that maybe he wouldn’t be rejected; and he wasn’t.

He even met an associate of Pine Tree that night, another hero who didn’t have a name yet, so Bill dubbed her “Shooting Star”, and she took to it.

The first week had been wonderful, but something happened that put a wedge in his and Pine Tree’s relationship.

Bill met Dipper in a bank and the two started talking. Since Bill had never been in a relationship, he used this opportunity to hear if Dipper was satisfied with his relationship with The Illuminator. 

A villain wishing to rob the bank, while Bill and Dipper had been there, held them all as hostages. For some reason, Dipper had thought it was a smart idea to run off. Bill had hoped that Dipper had managed to get away, but not even five minutes later, one of the villain’s henchmen dragged him back, and now Dipper’s life was truly in danger.

The villain had threatened to hurt Dipper if anyone tried anything, and in that moment Pine Tree showed up. Bill had begged Pine Tree to stay where he was, already working himself into a panic and generally feeling powerless, but Pine Tree moved to apprehend the villain, and the villain’s henchman shot Dipper.

Bill had reacted on pure instinct, tackling Pine Tree to the ground, and began to strangle him. Pine Tree freed himself from Bill and showed that the Dipper Bill had seen was an illusion, but that didn’t change the fact that Dipper could have died, all because of Pine Tree. Bill had thought that Pine Tree was a real hero, but after what had happened at the bank, he was starting to see differently.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Bill hadn’t originally planned on going to the fair, but decided at the last minute he might as well. If nothing else, he could spend some more time with Dipper.

He hadn’t expected to meet Monica there. She called herself “Pyro” now, and she had caused quite a stir at the fair in order to get Bill’s attention. She wanted him to rejoin IMP, but from the way she was talking, it was clear she had no idea that’s where Bill came from. So the IMP was enlisting Meliors now; was it just to get Bill back, or had they run out of test subjects and donors? Bill had tried to warn her, but she didn’t listen, and in the end, she fled, leaving Bill to worry what would happen to her.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

It had only been a matter of time, Bill kept telling himself that. He had recently encountered a new villain, Venus, who had kidnapped Dipper, and after fighting Venus, when Bill went back to rescue Dipper, the smaller man looked at him with such terror that Bill had never before seen in his eyes.

Dipper tried to lie, saying that he wasn’t scared of Bill, and it was just like him to try and spare Bill’s feelings, but the fear was practically exuding from Dipper’s being; the look in his eyes, his heightened heartbeat, Bill could even smell his sweat.

Bill left, telling Dipper he wouldn’t bother him anymore, and told Shooting Star to save Dipper for him, before he returned home. Shooting Star had given him an odd look, but didn’t get to say anything before Bill left.

Once Bill got home, he had a complete breakdown; he couldn’t remember what exactly happened, only that he destroyed every breakable object in sight, while tears streamed down his face.

Bill didn’t sleep that entire night, and when he went to work that morning, he quit his job. Bill just couldn’t bear to look at Dipper every day, knowing how much the other man feared him.

Bill also cut ties with Pine Tree that night, debating whether it was time to leave Gravity Falls all together. He knew there was a chance Dipper still had a crush on Pine Tree, and suggested that Pine Tree should maybe get with Dipper, but only after he learned that Pine Tree and Shooting Star weren’t dating.

It wasn’t long after that when he ran into Venus, and her employer, Pentagram. The two claimed they had information for The Illuminator, and lured him to an old warehouse, where Venus slipped a collar around Bill’s neck. They said it was a precaution, leverage even, and as soon as the collar was on, Bill felt a seething, burning rage well up inside him.

Venus and Pentagram started talking, saying they knew the reason why Dipper had been scared of Bill. Venus explained that while she had fled, Pentagram had been waiting outside the warehouse Dipper was held in, and he had seen Pine Tree slip in, looking like he was in a hurry.

Bill responded that Dipper had said Pine Tree had been there to free him. Venus pointed out that, that meant the reason Dipper had been afraid of Bill, was most likely because of Pine Tree, that the hero must have said something to him.

Under normal circumstances, Bill would have brushed it off, but with the collar filling him with rage, it all made perfect sense! Pine Tree wanted Dipper all to himself and had sabotaged Bill!

From then on, Bill worked for Venus and Pentagram. They ordered him to begin mind-wiping criminals again. There had been moments where Bill tried to remove the collar, but every time he attempted, the collar gave him an electric shock and after a while, Bill stopped trying, he stopped thinking, and just did whatever they wanted, never knowing why the two villains wanted Bill to start mind-wiping again.

After two weeks of mind-wiping criminals, Venus and Pentagram asked Bill if he had run into Pine Tree. He hadn’t, and the two villains told him to continue what he was doing, that soon he could have Dipper all to himself.

Only a week later, Bill saw Dipper for the first time in three weeks; he was getting mugged, and Bill swooped in to save him. Dipper, after getting over the shock of seeing The Illuminator again no doubt, still begged Bill not to mind-wipe the robber. Bill looked Dipper, and for a moment, it felt like the collar had stopped working, like he couldn’t feel the anger it produced; he just felt a sad longing to be with Dipper again. But then he remembered why he was doing this; to get back at Pine Tree for lying about him to Dipper. Bill mind-wiped the robber and went back home.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Bill hadn’t expected Dipper to follow him home, but then again, the other man knew where he lived, so it shouldn’t come as such a surprise to him.

Bill escaped to the warehouse where Venus and Pentagram was, and told them that they had to hurry the plan along; Venus and Pentagram were making more collars, and so far they only had one, besides the one Bill was wearing. Bill knew he should try to stop them, but he didn’t care; all he cared about was getting revenge on Pine Tree, completely remove him from the picture, and then reunite with Dipper.

Before they had a chance to talk much, Pine Tree and Shooting Star showed up. Bill attacked Pine Tree and fought him outside the warehouse, not caring for a moment what happened to Shooting Star.

“Listen to me-“ Pine Tree got interrupted in his explanation when Bill grabbed him.

“You think you deserve him?” Bill growled, giving the other Melior a shake.

“Who are you talking about?” Pine Tree asked, as if he didn’t already know.

“Dipper,” Bill whispered, finding himself unable to even say the man’s name with any sort of anger. But as he looked at Pine Tree, his hatred was quickly refueled. “WHAT DID YOU TELL HIM!?!”

“Nothing!” Pine Tree insisted, Bill already starting to growl again. “Whatever those two told you, they were lying! I promise-“

“NO!!!” Bill shouted as he threw Pine Tree into a nearby brick chimney. “Once I’m rid of you… he’ll take me back… Everything will go back to normal…”

“Illuminator, stop!” Pine Tree begged. “Would Dipper really want you to kill someone?”

Bill stopped up. No, Dipper wouldn’t want him to kill someone, he would never approve of that… and Bill loved Dipper, so maybe he… but because of Pine Tree, Dipper didn’t love Bill anymore! Dipper thought The Illuminator was a monster, just like everyone else did! Once Pine Tree was out of the picture, Bill could explain everything to Dipper, and surely Dipper would understand! Of course he would!

“I won’t be manipulated by you anymore,” Bill growled and grabbed Pine Tree, holding him against the chimney. “You know NOTHING about him.”

Bill knew what he needed to do; he had done so much so lately it was like a second nature to him… Using one hand to keep Pine Tree in place, Bill slowly brought the other hand closer and closer to Pine Tree, ready to wipe his mind clean…

“Wait!” Pine Tree gasped, struggling to get free. If you really want to kill me, you need to know who you’re killing.”

Pine Tree allowed his transformation to wear off, and what Bill saw blew his mind; Pine Tree had turned into Dipper!

“N-no,” Bill gasped, letting go of Dipper. He couldn’t hurt Dipper, but the anger continued to flow from the collar, demanding revenge. “I won’t-“ Bill reached for the collar, only managing to remove the part of his jacket covering neck, before the electric shock from the collar became too much to bear and he fell to the ground.

Bill kept trying to get the collar off, but every time he touched it, another wave of electricity hit him. It looked like Dipper understood what was going on, and he grabbed Bill’s collar and tried to get it off. The collar continued to send electric shock to Bill, but he tried to keep still to make it easier for Dipper to remove the collar.

Finally, Dipper managed to get the damn thing off, and he threw it to the ground and smashed it into pieces. While Bill was breathing heavily, finally free from the collar, he noticed Dipper taking a closer look at the broken thing, and pull out a red feather. Dipper gave him a worried look, and Bill didn’t have to guess what the other man was thinking.

“I’m fine now,” Bill said, his voice hoarse from all the screams of pain. “The feathers were powering the collar, so their effect stopped when you removed it…” Bill approached Dipper, kneeling down beside him, and just stared at him for a moment.

Bill gave Dipper a short explanation of what the collar did to him, and what Venus and Pentagram were planning. Dipper transformed back into Pine Tree, and said that they needed to help Mabel, which is how Bill learned that Mabel was Shooting Star. Bill wanted to tell Dipper who he really was, but the other Melior said it would have to wait.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Oh my god, Bill…” Mabel stared at him, looking like she was unable to process everything she had heard.

“So… IMP is trying to capture you?” Dipper asked, his voice quiet and filled with worry.

“Maybe it is about time to leave Gravity Falls,” Bill shrugged. “At least then, you two wouldn’t get mixed into this.”

“We already are,” Dipper insisted. “We’re Meliors too; if some people out there are hurting Meliors, we need to stop them.”

“And we’re heroes too,” Mabel added. “Innocent people are getting killed; we can’t stand for that.”

“So what are you gonna do?” Bill asked, sounding for all intents and purposes like he had already given up.

“For the moment, we’re protecting you,” Dipper said, pointing at Bill. “The Institute won’t hurt you anymore.”

“And we’ll work on bettering the names of Meliors,” Mabel smiled brightly.

“And if those IMP people show up, we’ll give them a piece of our mind,” Dipper added.

“Sounds like a plan,” Bill responded nonchalantly. “Sorry, but I am way too emotionally drained after all this; I think I’m heading home.”

“Home?” Mabel asked. “You mean, that old, crummy building that looks like it could fall apart any moment?”

“It’s better than sleeping on the street,” Bill shrugged and rose from his seat.

The twins gave each other a look before nodding, both of them rising to block Bill’s path to the door.

“You’re not gonna live there anymore,” Dipper shook his head.

“You seriously want me to move?” Bill frowned.

“You bet we do,” Mabel nodded.

“Okay,” Bill sighed. “It was fun while it lasted.”

“Bill, you’re moving in here,” Dipper explained.

“… Could you repeat that?” Bill asked after a short pause.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, now it's time to continue work on Abducted. Can't say when the next chapter will be, but hopefully it'll come out faster than this one;3
> 
> Please leave a comment, if you want to:3


	14. Episode 13: Starting Over

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After learning Bill's backstory, Dipper and Mabel want him to move in with them. Unfortunately, it seems like Bill isn't too sure if he should.
> 
> Meanwhile, we learn more about IMP...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, a month and a half!? Well, I suppose it fits since last chapter WAS sort of a, I guess you could call it, "season finale"??? Anyway, this chapter would still have gotten out earlier, but this last week, I've been sick, nothing serious, just the flu, but it sucked enough that I wasn't able to write until like three/four days ago.
> 
> Anyway, I am super proud of this chapter. For what was originally going to be an establishing chapter, mainly centered around Bill and Dipper returning as a crimefighting duo, I actually managed to write in a plotline that, while small, I'm pretty proud of.
> 
> But aside from all that, I hope you'll enjoy reading it:3

Bill still seemed rather stunned at the twins’ insistence that he moved in with them, but Dipper couldn’t blame him, not after what Bill had told them. Dipper could have never imagined that a seemingly carefree and easygoing guy like Bill had been through all that, but then again, that part of Bill’s personality seemed to mainly be a façade.

The work day went on like normal, as if Bill had never even left to begin with, but there was an underlying feeling of tension in the air, and everyone could sense it.

As the sun began to set, and Bill returned from his last delivery, it was time for Dipper and Bill to go to Bill’s old house and pack his belongings. Bill only grabbed a backpack, insisting it was more than enough to carry the few belongings he had, and led Dipper out to his motorcycle.

“So, uh, where’s the sidecar?” Dipper asked as Bill handed him a spare helmet.

“Don’t have one,” Bill shrugged, putting on his own helmet; an obsidian black one, with a single cyan stripe, and dark glass that left his face hidden. “You can ride behind me.”

“Isn’t that really dangerous?” Dipper balked, his eyes widened with fear at the mere idea of riding on the motorbike.

“Not when you’re riding with someone like me,” despite Bill’s face being covered, and his voice muffled by the helmet, Dipper could practically sense the hidden smirk. “You just gotta promise to hold on real tight~”

Dipper frowned, throwing another apprehensive look towards the motorcycle.

“I promise nothing’s going to hurt you,” Dipper looked up at Bill, surprised at the deeply sincere tone. He still couldn’t see Bill’s face, but he didn’t need to.

Dipper gave Bill a small nod before he put on his helmet, and they both got on the motorbike; Bill in front, Dipper behind, arms wrapped tightly around Bill’s waist.

As the bike began to move, Dipper held on to Bill for dear life. As terrifying as the short ride was for Dipper, he had to admit he liked feeling Bill’s muscles under his hands, and having his face and chest pressed up against Bill’s back.

When they arrived at Bill’s home, the two men didn’t look at or speak to each other. They simply removed their helmets and entered, all in complete silence. It wasn’t until they were both inside that the tense tranquility was broken.

“So, uh,” Dipper mumbled, looking around nervously. “Is there… anything you need help with, or…?”

“No, I handle it on my own,” Bill responded, both his tone and expression grim and cold. He walked up the stairs, each step creaking under his weight and releasing small clouds of dust from the old carpet covering the stairs.

“Okay,” Dipper sighed melancholically. He stepped away from the stairs and inside the living room, sitting down in one of the old, dusty arm chairs. He looked down at the worn floorboards, wondering why Bill had asked him to come if he wasn’t there to help packing. Aside from that, he wondered why things still felt so weird around Bill; they had talked, hadn’t they? Why weren’t things back to normal?

“Got almost everything now,” Bill announced as he entered the living room. He looked at the floor in front of the fire place and frowned, his eyes darting from side to side across the room. “Um, Porcupine, you’ve seen a photo lying around here?”

“No, why?” Dipper asked.

“Because it’s important,” Bill replied, looking rather distraught. “I know I left it here last time…”

“’Last time’?” Dipper repeated. “The last time you were here, you were- Oh!” Dipper paused when he realized what picture Bill was talking about. “I… burned it…”

“What!?” Bill exclaimed distressed. “Why?”

“Well, it was before the fight with Venus and Pentagram,” Dipper explained. “I thought you had stolen the picture from Bill or something. But why would you want to keep it? Your face was scribbled out.”

“I did that myself,” Bill grumbled and looked away. “I didn’t want to look at me, just you… That was my only photo of you…”

“We can always take more,” Dipper assured him, surprised at Bill’s confession to be the one who scribbled his own face out. It was starting to hit Dipper that Bill had some very deep self-loathing issues, something he should have probably picked up on before. “In fact,” Dipper walked over to Bill and embraced him from behind. “I want a photo of you and me in our room.”

“… ‘Our room’?” Bill repeated carefully, as if he was worried he had heard wrong.

“Well, where did you think you were gonna sleep?” Dipper chuckled.

“The couch,” Bill replied earnestly.

“You don’t have to stay in my room if you don’t want to,” Dipper responded dejectedly. “But I want to be with you.”

“Look, Porcupine,” Bill sighed and removed himself from Dipper’s arms. “That’s… very generous of you, but… right now, I’m wondering if I should even move in at all.”

“What?” Dipper stared at the other man as an uncomfortable silence began to spread.

Dipper stretched out his hand and almost reached Bill’s shoulder, before Bill froze up and walked towards the only window in the room.

“You hear that?” he asked, opening the window and letting the sound from outside flow in. Dipper listened and picked up on the faint sound of a fire alarm.

“Is there a fire nearby?” Dipper wondered out loud.

“We should probably check it out,” Bill said before transforming and jumping out the window.

Dipper couldn’t help but feel like Bill was using the potential fire as an excuse to change the subject, but with the possibility of lives in danger, Dipper had to set aside their conversation for now, so he transformed and followed Bill.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

It was a fire. By the time Bill and Dipper showed up, the fire had already consumed a big part of the building, and there was no fire truck in sight.

Bill rushed inside, feet first through a window, leaving Dipper behind once again. Dipper knew his powers would be useless at best, and at worst, his plants would only provide the fire with more fuel. He forced the front door open, a sea of black smoke greeting him as he stepped inside the building.

“Is anyone in here!?” he yelled as loudly as he could, while also covering his face with his arm. He didn’t hear a response. “If anyone can hear me, get down on the floor! I’ll reach you as fast as I can!”

Dipper started searching the first floor, where the fire luckily hadn’t spread much, but he couldn’t find anyone. The stairs to the second floor, however, were covered in flames, making it hard, but not impossible, for Dipper to reach the next floor.

Over the sound of the roaring flames, Dipper managed to pick up on a few muffled sobs, along with a low, faint voice speaking. Dipper followed the sound to a closed door further away from the fire; a small childish drawing hanged on the door informed that it was “Vanessa’s Room”. Dipper opened the door, the sobbing getting louder and more clear as he did so, and found Bill, still in his ‘form, crouched down in front of a bed.

“You need to get out of there,” Bill said to whoever was hiding under the bed. “The fire’s taking more and more of the building by the second,” Bill was clearly trying his best to sound calm, but was failing to ease the person under the bed as the sobbing grew louder.

“What’s going on, Illuminator?” Dipper asked, entering the room and closing the door behind him so the smoke couldn’t enter.

“She’s the only one in the building,” Bill explained. “I’ve tried to get her to come out from under the bed, but…” Bill paused for a moment and looked away with a sad expression. “I tried to pull her out from under there, but then she bit me.”

“Let me try,” Dipper offered and lied down on the floor between Bill and the bed. A small, dark-haired girl, looking like she was around six, was lying under the bed as far in as possible; she stared at Dipper with frightened eyes, shaking ever so slightly. “Hey, are you Vanessa?” Dipper asked the girl, keeping his voice as friendly and calm as possible. “I saw your drawing on the door; it was really good.”

The girl, Vanessa, nodded and seemed to calm down after seeing that it was now Dipper talking to her, and not Bill.

“Vanessa, there’s a fire going on in the building right now,” Dipper said, making his tone serious, but still calm. “You know how dangerous fires are, right?”

“Yes,” Vanessa sniffled as tears started to fall from her eyes. “I’m sorry… I didn’t know that would happen…”

“It’s okay, Vanessa, no one’s mad at you,” Dipper assured her. “Right now, I need to get you away from the fire so you don’t get hurt. So would you please get out from under the bed so I can help you?”

“Is the monster gone?” Vanessa whispered, sounding very scared.

“What monster?” Dipper asked.

“The big, scary monster from before,” Vanessa cried softly. “It tried to grab me…”

“Are you talking about The Illuminator?” Dipper frowned. “I promise he’s not going to hurt you; he’s just scared because he doesn’t want you to get hurt either.”

Vanessa didn’t move.

“The Illuminator’s a hero, like me,” Dipper tried to explain. “Unfortunately, he met some real monsters, monsters that did some bad things to him. Yet despite all he’s been through, he still wants to help people in need, like you. In fact, he’s saved my life many times. So I promise you, he’s not a monster, and he’s not going to hurt you.”

Vanessa gave Dipper a nervous look before she began to crawl out from under the bed.

“The fire’s gotten too close to the door,” Bill said, his back on Dipper and Vanessa as he focused on the door. “We can’t get out from there.”

“Then we’ll have to exit through the window,” Dipper responded and opened the window. Outside, a crowd of people had gathered, looking on in fear at the raging fire. Dipper focused all his energy on the ground, forcing a massive vine to break through the concrete and grow up to the window. “There, now we have an escape.”

Vanessa was looking at Dipper in awe.

“How’cha do that!?” she exclaimed excitedly, bouncing up and down, her previous fear forgotten.

“I’ll tell you once we’re safe outside,” Dipper said, picking up Vanessa on his shoulder, grabbing the vine and sliding down from, closely followed by Bill, all three of them landing safely on the ground.

“Get away from my little girl!” a woman practically screeched, marching from the gathered crowd and pulled Vanessa into her arms.

“Mommy! They saved me!” Vanessa said happily. “They saved me!”

“Oh, sweetheart, no,” her mother shook her head and held her closer, backing away from Bill and Dipper. “I’m sure they were the ones who started the fire.”

“No, mommy, I did,” Vanessa insisted with a guilty expression. “I tried to make dinner for when you and daddy go home, but it started burning. I tried to ex-tin-squish the fire with water, but it… didn’t work. But they saved me, mommy!”

“Vanessa, sweetie,” her mommy’s tone got more strict. “They might have been planning to kidnap you.”

“Ma’am, we literally just traversed a burning building to save your daughter,” Dipper interrupted the mother-daughter conversation. “We’re not expecting a huge thanks or anything, but you could at least not accuse us of being criminals!”

The woman seized up, looking at Dipper and Bill terrified as she held her daughter closer.

“Pine Tree,” Bill sighed and placed a hand on Dipper’s shoulder. “Let’s just leave.”

Dipper gave the mother an angry look before nodding, and the two Meliors left.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The duo took a break on a nearby rooftop, needing to calm down after what just happened.

“I’m sorry, Bill,” Dipper groaned, feeling frustrated at the situation. “This was- I’m sorry.”

“… She said ‘they’,” Bill whispered. Dipper looked at him and saw a look of almost wonder on Bill’s face.

“… Yeah,” Dipper agreed, having expected a completely different reaction from Bill because of all the “monster” talk as well as that woman’s reaction, but he supposed Bill was used to those kinds of things. What he wasn’t used to, was for someone to acknowledge that he had saved them.

“… Though, we didn’t work together like we used to,” Bill said abruptly.

“Well, you did just run off without me,” Dipper shrugged.

“Exactly,” Bill nodded.

“That doesn’t mean anything,” Dipper sighed exasperated. “It’s just because… we’re not communicating. We work best together when we’re in clear communication with each other.”

There was a short pause between them before the conversation picked up again.

“I’ve just felt like a misfit all day,” Bill responded. “Like I shouldn’t even be here…”

“Is this about moving in with me?” Dipper asked, stepping closer to Bill. “I just don’t want you to live in that decrepit, old building. A-and if you don’t want to share a room with me, that’s fine. Maybe we can turn the backroom in the store into a bedroom?”

“I don’t deserve it,” Bill said, his eyes staring off into the distance.

“Why do you think you need to earn it?” when Dipper didn’t get a reply, he frowned and decided a different strategy. “I thought for a long time that I didn’t deserve to have someone who loved me…”

“That’s different,” Bill whispered, his voice raw with emotion. “You’re kind, intelligent, brave… beautiful… Anyone would be lucky to have you.”

“It’s not any different at all,” Dipper insisted. “I fell in love with you the night you saved me. You could’ve ignored the situation all together, but you didn’t! Even while you were being controlled by Pentagram and Venus, you still saved me. I love you. And if I have to tell you that every day for the rest of my life to make you believe it, then that’s what I’ll do.”

Bill said nothing. For a moment, Dipper thought Bill was about to run off, but instead he turned around and embraced Dipper. After a single stunned moment, Dipper returned the embrace, running his hands up and down Bill’s back as the taller Melior began to shake with silent sobs. Bill was clinging on to Dipper like a lifeline, as if he was too afraid to even think about letting go.

“… I’d…” Bill’s voice was low, barely even audible to Dipper despite how close they were standing to each other. “… I’d like to move into your room…”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Mitzi Ward had originally been skeptical about her current job; it had been hard enough to get her psychology degree, and to throw all that away for this, seemed wasteful. Had it not been for her friend, Nigel, who had a year prior been in the same boat as her, and had been working here for a year at the time, Mitzi would have probably never chosen to work for the Institute for Melior Psychology. Mitzi had been scared when she sought job at IMP, who wouldn’t be? But all her fears had quickly been removed after the mandatory orientation for new employees.

Mitzi was making her way towards a meeting room near the front of the building; Nigel had asked for help dealing with someone. When she arrived at the meeting room, Nigel was sitting at the table, and opposite of him, a Melior Mitzi didn’t recognize was sitting.

Mitzi let out a small gasp and instinctively grabbed her communicator, but Nigel waved her off in a calm manner.

“It’s alright, Dr. Ward,” Nigel said, neither his voice nor face revealing any of his intentions, or at the very least, revealed nothing to the Melior in front of him. “This gentleman arrived today, wishing to give IMP an offer.”

“Really?” Mitzi marveled with fake surprise as she walked into the room, shutting and discreetly locking the door behind, maneuvering to stand right behind the Melior’s chair.

“Please tell Dr. Ward what you just told me,” Nigel continued.

“Well, Ms. Ward,” the Melior began, his voice had a somewhat thick southern accent. “I believe your company and me can enter a form of partnership,” he pointed at some papers strewn across the table. “These here prints detail the workings of an incredible invention; originally, the papers contained info on an advanced shock collar, but I have managed to improve them, effectively turning a shock collar into a mind control collar.”

“Really?” Mitzi gasped in fake surprise. “What is your proposition?”

“I need funding to build my collars,” the Melior explained. “I’ll give you the prints to the collar, if I get to keep… let’s say a dozen?”

“Oh, but you’re only gonna need one,” Mitzi giggled.

“What are you-?” before the Melior had a chance to continue, Mitzi transformed. She used her power to create and manipulate metal to make cuffs shoot out from the chairs armrests, effectively trapping the Melior in the chair.

“Your collar is old news,” Mitzi laughed. “Seriously old news. Even that ‘improvement’ you made? Yeah, our CEO has already created a way more advanced version.”

“Y-you’re a Melior!” the captive exclaimed, his voice shaking in shock and fear.

“And so is Nigel here,” Mitzi nodded towards Nigel. “Oh, but don’t worry. IMP is still more than willing to cooperate with you! So tell me, would you rather have your stone removed, or have more stones operated into you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, next chapter of this is going to be another short one, about the size of this if not shorter, basically the equivalent of a filler chapter. I'm sort of in a toss up whether I now should work on Abducted, College Crush, or even Lovesick, since I like to change what story I focus on with each chapter, but for the people who are curious about the next chapter of Masks & Capes, I can tease something about it "Sleeping Beauty", make of that what you will;3
> 
> Please leave a comment if you want to, I love to receive comments:3


	15. Episode 14: Rose Thorns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A series of mysterious comas suddenly start happening in town, and it's up to the gang to figure out how to stop them and who's behind them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the long wait! I gotta be honest, I've been pretty stuck on this chapter. I've had this chapter planned for a long time and, I dunno, I guess when I finally needed to write it I just got stuck:P

It was late afternoon, around five pm. Dipper and Bill were having a late lunch / early dinner date at a local café. Last week, one of the gossip magazines Mabel read had published a picture of Pine Tree and the Illuminator kissing, along with an article talking about the possibility of the two dating. Naturally, since it wasn’t public knowledge that Dipper and the Illuminator had previously broken up, the article also posed the question if the Illuminator was cheating on Dipper.

 

The couple was enjoying their food when a woman carrying a notepad and pen approached them.

 

“Excuse me,” the woman said, smiling like a cat that had a just caught a fat canary. “You wouldn’t happen to be Dipper Pines, right?”

 

“… I am…” Dipper responded hesitantly.

 

“I’m so sorry to interrupt, but I was just curious,” the woman placed the pen on the pad, ready to write down whatever was about to occur. “How do you feel knowing that the Illuminator cheated on you?”

 

“Uh, he didn’t,” Dipper shook his head.

 

“Oh, you mean you haven’t seen the picture?” the woman said with clearly fake concern while quickly scribbling a couple of notes. “I am so sorry you found out this way, but it seems your man has been seeing another Melior behind your back…”

 

“The Illuminator and I aren’t dating anymore,” Dipper replied deadpanned. “We haven’t been together for a while now.”

 

“Yeah, in case you didn’t notice, he’s been upgraded,” Bill added with a smirk only to receive a small kick from under the table and a glare from Dipper.

 

“Oh, so you broke up with him?” the woman asked in a very interested tone.

 

“No, he broke up with me,” Dipper quickly corrected her before she could ask another question. “It’s obvious that me dating him made me a target for villains, and he couldn’t bear to put me in danger.”

 

“He doesn’t seem too broken up about it,” the woman retorted, looking angry that her angle on the story had been ruined.

 

“Do you even know how long it’s been since they broke up?” Bill asked, raising an eyebrow, but before the woman had a chance to respond, the sound of faint screaming was heard in the distance. The sound grew louder as a wave of screaming people ran away from an unknown source.

 

“Ooh! A scoop!” the woman said excitedly and ran towards the screaming people.

 

“You think it’s a Melior?” Bill leaned over the table and whispered to Dipper.

 

“Judging from the size of the crowd, it’s likely,” Dipper shrugged. “Find a place to transform and try to scope out the situation. I’ll contact Mabel and tell her where to find us.”

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

Bill did as Dipper had told him and ducked into the nearest alley to transform. He used the rooftops to survey the area, running in the opposite direction of the fleeing crowd, hoping to find whatever had caused them to run.

 

He soon located a broken shop window, with five people lying on the ground in front of it. He jumped down from the roof and checked their pulse; they were still alive and seemed only unconscious. Oddly enough, there were small piles of golden sand around them.

 

He walked inside to investigate, only to find three more people passed out; one of them was the cashier, who had passed out on top of the cash register, and another one looked like a robber, having a bandana covering their mouth. There were also small piles of sand inside the shop.

 

Bill walked over to one of the piles and picked up a small amount; the grains of the sand were so tiny, the sand almost seemed more like a liquid with how smoothly it fell through his fingers. There was no doubt about it; this was the work of a Melior.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

Dipper sent Mabel a quick text explaining the situation, and telling her to meet him on the roof of the Scanderous office building nearby.

 

After sending the text, Dipper dived into a nearby alleyway and transformed, quickly making his way to the Scanderous office building.

 

While waiting for Mabel, Dipper began to hear some commotion in the office building. At first he ignored it, thinking it was just some disagreement between co-workers that had gotten a little out of hand, but when a chair was thrown out of the window, Dipper decided to intervene.

 

He climbed down and dived in through the broken window, to find a room full of unconscious people, a young woman who, judging from her cyan hair, was Melior, and a middle-aged man who was looking fearfully at the unknown Melior, whom herself looked afraid.

 

“Oh great!” the middle-aged man said, his voice quaking with fear. “Now there’s another one!”

 

“What’s going on here?” Dipper asked, looking from the man to the Melior.

 

“I-it’s not what i-it looks like!” the Melior was quick to say. “I was just hiding out here, when-“

 

“She attacked us!” the man yelled. “Look at my co-workers!”

 

“What happened?” Dipper asked the Melior calmly while slowly stepping closer.

 

“N-no, please stand back,” the Melior begged before she began coughing out small particles right into Dipper’s face.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

After securing the area with the unconscious bodies, Bill returned to the café he and Dipper had been at. Dipper wasn’t there, probably out searching for the Melior behind this with Mabel.

 

Bill kept walking, hoping he would either run into them, or discover some kind of clue. Both things ended up sort of happening.

 

He found Mabel, fully-transformed, standing outside an office building; an office building covered in big, thorny vines.

 

“Hey, Illuminator,” Mabel greeted him, taking her eyes away from the vines for a moment. “Are we up against a Melior with plant powers? Pine Tree asked me to meet him here, but…”

 

“There weren’t any plants at the original scene of the crime,” Bill responded. “These vines probably belong to Pine Tree.”

 

“Is he inside?” Mabel asked. “Why would he grow thorns around the building? You can’t get in!”

 

“Maybe that’s the point,” Bill suggested. “Maybe he’s trying to prevent the culprit from getting in, for some reason.”

 

“That would mean they’re still at large somewhere,” Mabel nodded in agreement.

 

“I’ll stay here and get Pine Tree,” Bill said. “If nothing else, I can burn the vines down. You go out and tried to find our culprit; they’re Melior, seem to be able to send people into comas, and they leave piles of smooth sand behind.”

 

“Gotcha!” Mabel announced before running off.

 

“Alright, let’s try and do this,” Bill whispered to himself. He summoned a ball of fire in his hands and sent it towards the vines. At first, the vines seemed to burn normally, but then they kind of shook, and put the fire out. “What!?” Bill exclaimed in confusion. “Hey! Pine Tree! It’s The Illuminator!”

 

There was no response.

 

“He must be boarded up there,” Bill mumbled. If he couldn’t use his fire, he’d had to use his claws.

 

Bill began to cut the thick vines, but even though he managed to do some damage, the vines healed faster than he could slash. Bill let out a frustrated sigh and leaned against one of the vines, making sure to avoid the thorns.

 

“There has to be some way to- whoah!” he exclaimed when the vine he was leaning against moved from his weight. “I can push them?” Bill tried to forcefully push one of the vines, but it didn’t move. “I could move them just before!” Bill exclaimed, slapping the vine he had tried to push only for the vine to slap him back, leaving a small cut on his face.

 

Bill hissed at the sudden pain and began to think. What had he done differently when the vine moved? He thought for a few moments, walking back and forth as he did, until he got an idea.

 

This time, instead of forcefully pushing and pulling the vines, he gently stroked them. The vines followed his movement, even meeting his hand, which allowed Bill to lead them away and left him a way inside.

 

He rushed into the building and started looking for Dipper; he even called out to him, but got no answer. He ran up the stairs and explored the other floors, but all he found were more people passed out in piles of sand.

 

Finally, when he reached the final floor, he found Dipper.

 

Dipper was still in his forme, but he seemed to be passed out too. He was lying on an office couch with a pile of sand around him.

 

“Pine Tree…?” Bill whispered, using the name of his alter ego, just in case some of the other people in the room weren’t unconscious.

 

Dipper didn’t stir.

 

“I know you’re still awake, Pine Tree,” Bill continued somewhat annoyed. “Otherwise you couldn’t be using your powers… right?” he actually wasn’t too sure about that. In theory, Dipper shouldn’t be able to, but it could be that if he was having a vivid dream…

 

Bill reached out and shook Dipper, but he remained asleep.

 

“This is kinda like…” Bill paused. In his youth spent in IMP, he had had access to books, including fairy tales, one of which was… “Sleeping Beauty…”

 

It was a crazy idea, but maybe it’d work? Bill was willing to try, so he leaned down and pressed his lips against Dipper’s… nothing happened.

 

“Yeah, I guess it’d be too simple if that had worked,” Bill sighed, before a grim realization entered his mind; while the version of Sleeping Beauty that had the princess awaken with a kiss, another version that the IMP had, instead had the princess be awaken by… having her unconscious body raped by the prince…

 

Bill shook his head and almost felt like he was going to throw up. Sure, he wasn’t opposed to the idea of having sex with Dipper, far from it in fact, but… not like this! Never like this! Why had he even thought of that!? It wasn’t like it would work! But if it did… and if it was only way to awaken Dipper… that would be their first time… that would Bill’s very first time; raping his boyfriend’s unconscious body!

 

“No,” Bill said, slapping himself in the face for even thinking that. Maybe there was another way. Curiously, Bill used his fingers, carefully minding the claws, to pry one of Dipper’s eyes open. His pupil was moving, meaning that he was in REM, which meant he was dreaming.

 

Bill let go of the eyelids and lied down on the floor. If Dipper was dreaming, Bill should be able to enter his dreams. A less used part of Bill’s inherent powers, was the ability to instantly fall asleep and enter REM, which obviously didn’t have a lot of uses, so it didn’t take long for Bill to fall asleep, knowing that Dipper’s vines were protecting the building, and enter Dipper’s dream.

 

For an REM dream, it wasn’t particularly detailed; all it featured was a black void, along with a giant bush of thorny vines, similar to those outside the building.

 

“Dipper?” Bill asked, stepping closer to the bush.

 

“Bill?” Dipper’s voice gasped, and Bill was just able to see one of his brown eyes through a small hole between the vines. “I- What’s going on?”

 

“Dipper, you’re in a dream right now,” Bill explained. “The Melior who’s doing this, is putting everyone into comas, I think. And they got you too. I haven’t been able to wake you up, but I think if we can remove these vines-“

 

“I’ve already tried,” Dipper interrupted. “I realized that I was sleeping pretty quickly, and I’ve tried to remove the vines, but nothing works! I think… I think this might a physical-thing, rather than a mental-thing, if that makes any sense?”

 

“If it worked on the vines outside,” Bill mumbled to himself and tried to stroke the vines, but they didn’t move. Apparently these vines weren’t subconsciously controlled by Dipper.

 

“Do you have any ideas at all?” Dipper asked, sounding exhausted. “Because I’m open to pretty much anything.”

 

“I…” Bill hesitated for a moment, but continued despite his better judgment. “I do have one idea, but I don’t think you’re going to like it. In one version of Sleeping Beauty I read as a kid, the princess awakens when the prince… rapes her comatose body…”

 

“That… could work,” Dipper responded to Bill’s surprise. “I mean sexual arousal would both kick the brain and body in motion, so it’s not too farfetched.”

 

“You… You do realize what I’m saying here, right? I would have to… masturbate your unconscious body…”

 

“Well, isn’t it better that you do it?” Dipper asked. “I mean, you are my boyfriend.”

 

“But… we haven’t… yet…”

 

“No, but I’m kinda… out of commission right now, and our top priority is figuring out a way to stop this Melior. I trust you, Bill.”

 

“… Alright,” Bill said with a sigh. “I’ll… I’ll just return if it didn’t work…”

 

Exiting out of the dream world, Bill hesitantly got to work.

 

Since Dipper’s suit was a one-piece, Bill had to remove the entire thing, peeling it off down to the knees, exposing both Dipper’s chest and groin.

 

Bill started pumping Dipper’s member, looking away as he did so, still feeling utterly disgusted with himself for doing so, and even more so because a small part of him enjoyed it.

 

Surprisingly, as Bill stroked the dick, Dipper began to stir, even mumble, while drops of sweat started pouring from his body.

 

Bill kept pumping Dipper’s cock, feeling the blood pound beneath his fingers, until finally, Dipper climaxed, opening his eyes as he did so.

 

“W-well,” Dipper chuckled, sounding out of breath. “Guess it worked.”

 

“I guess,” Bill shrugged and looked away while Dipper got dressed. “But it’s not like we can go and masturbate every single person who’s fallen victim to this Melior…”

 

“Good point,” Dipper nodded, before sniffing the air. “… Do you smell something?”

 

“It’s probably your sweat,” Bill pointed out.

 

“It doesn’t smell like it though,” Dipper dried off a few beads of sweat on his brow and smelled it. “No, that’s definitely my sweat, but… Is it just me, or does it look kinda… yellow?”

 

Bill leaned over, examining not only the sweat Dipper had dried off on his fingers, but the sweat on his entire face. It did have sort of a golden glow to it, and the smell reminded him of… saltwater?

 

“… That’s the cure,” Dipper said with sudden realization. “You need to sweat it out!”

 

“Wish I had known that before,” Bill mumbled to himself.

 

“Can you use your pyrokinesis to increase the room’s temperature?” Dipper asked.

 

“That… should be plausible.”

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

Mabel felt like she had searched for hours, but the culprit was seemingly nowhere to be found. There were a lot more unconscious people around, but aside from that, no clue.

 

She turned and began to run back towards the building she left Bill at; she had to tell him that she hadn’t been very successful, but maybe Bill had had more luck.

 

Rounding a corner to take a shortcut through an alleyway, Mabel found a young woman, sitting with her forehead resting on the wall, crying. She was surrounded by more unconscious bodies.

 

“Hey, are you okay?” Mabel asked carefully, knowing that whoever the woman was, she was likely to get scared by the sight of a Melior.

 

“Don’t come any closer!” the woman sobbed.

 

“I’m not going to hurt,” Mabel assured her. “I’m not the one who did this-“

 

“I know,” the woman interrupted. “I am. Please, don’t come any closer.”

 

Mabel braced herself, ready for a fight if that’s what the woman wanted, but she stayed sitting there, focused on the wall.

 

“Aren’t you going to attack me?” Mabel inquired confused.

 

“I’m sorry,” the woman sobbed again, her sobs only interrupted by a few violently coughs. The coughs released small puffs of dust that floated in the air for a while, only to fall to the floor and becoming piles of sand-like substance.

 

“You… can’t control your powers,” Mabel stated.

 

“It rarely happens,” the woman swallowed loudly before continuing. “This is only the third time… But every time, I go to sleep, and when I wake up, I’m transformed, a-and I cough up this weird sand that puts people in comas, a-and I d-don’t know how t-to s-stop i-it! I-it had been five y-years since i-it last happened, s-so I m-moved to the city to pursue my d-dream, b-but now… Before I o-only hit t-two o-or three people, but this t-time I hit so many…!”

 

“H-hey, it’s alright,” Mabel placed a hand on the woman’s shoulder, trying desperately to comfort her. “How do you usually turn back?”

 

“I don’t know,” the woman cried. “S-since it’s only happened t-twice before, I haven’t discovered a p-pattern…”

 

Mabel knew badgering the poor woman wouldn’t get them anywhere, so she tried a different strategy.

 

“What’s your name?” Mabel asked.

 

“I don’t want to say,” the woman sobbed, and Mabel let out a sympathetic noise.

 

“What do you want me to call you, then?”

 

“… Somna,” the woman’s whisper was barely audible, but somehow Mabel was able to catch it.

 

“Alright, Somna,” Mabel smiled, even though Somna couldn’t see it. “What is your dream anyway? Why did you move to the city?”

 

“… I… I want to be a dancer,” Somna mumbled. “I go to a dance studio here in town.”

 

Mabel was about to respond when her cell phone buzzed, signaling that she had a message. Knowing that it could be Dipper or Bill, she discretely fished it out and checked it.

 

The message was from Dipper and read: “Where are you? We found cure to coma”

 

Mabel sent a quick text back saying where she would meet them.

 

“Hey, one of my friends just called,” Mabel told Somna. “He says he’s found a cure to your powers. We need to meet with him at a nearby café.”

 

“Are… are you sure he’s found a cure?”

 

“He wouldn’t lie to me,” Mabel assured her and helped her up. Somna was still cough and trying her best not to hit Mabel with the sand, but she was also willingly following Mabel to the café.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

When Mabel arrived with the perpetrator, Dipper immediately recognized her, but he hadn’t expected that she would be coming willingly.

 

“Hey, this is Somna,” Mabel explained. “She… she can’t control her powers…”

 

“I’m sorry,” Somna sobbed, tears streaming down her face. “I didn’t mean for this to happen…”

 

“Don’t worry,” Bill replied. “We’ve figured out how to counteract your powers; people just need to sweat the sand out. We tried it on the way here using my flames, and it worked every time.”

 

“You mean… the people are alright?” Somna whispered, sounding relieved. Bill and Dipper responded with a simple nod, and Somna’s face broke out into a bright smile. “Oh, that’s… that’s so wonderful! Thank you!”

 

“Just doing our duty,” Dipper shrugged, blushing slightly at the gratitude, but his expression changed when he saw that Somna was fading away.

 

“What’s going on?!” Mabel exclaimed, trying desperately to grab a hold of Somna.

 

“I… I’m not sure,” Somna stuttered.

 

“This looks like…” Bill frowned. “Does your power activate when you go to sleep?”

 

“Sometimes,” Somna said, still fading away. “I mean, I don’t transform every time I go to sleep, but I only transform when I fall asleep, if that makes sense.”

 

“It’s astral projection,” Bill concluded. “Don’t worry; you’ll be fine. You’ll simply wake up where you last fell asleep.”

 

“Alright,” Somna nodded, but still looked scared. “I’ll trust you…”

 

And with that, she was gone.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

The sun had set by the time the trio returned home.

 

Dipper and Bill went to their room to talk.

 

“So, uh… about today,” Bill started before letting out an awkward cough.

 

“Are you still feeling bad about it?” Dipper asked, a worried frown appearing on his brow.

 

“Honestly, I mostly feel stupid right now,” Bill sighed and sat down on the bed. “I should’ve been able to figure out the whole ‘sweating it out’-thing, then we could have just done that instead.”

 

“You know I’m not mad at you, right?” Dipper sat down beside Bill and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

 

“I know,” Bill nodded and rolled his shoulders, shaking Dipper’s hand off.

 

Dipper could feel that Bill wasn’t entirely honest. He let out a dejected sigh, before he got an idea.

 

“You know,” Dipper smiled and gave Bill lust filled gaze. “We could always have our first time now~”

 

Feeling excited, Dipper crawled into Bill’s lap and started nuzzling his neck, but was disappointed when Bill didn’t react.

 

“Dipper… no,” Bill shook his head. “Not… not right now.”

 

“I understand,” Dipper nodded and crawled off Bill’s lap. “I love you, Bill. And it’s gonna take more than that to drive me off.”

 

“I know,” Bill gave him a small smile. “I love you too. I just… need to process all this…”

 

“Do you need to be alone?”

 

“No,” Bill said and pulled Dipper close.

 

A few weeks later the magazines were buzzing about a new talented dancer called “Candra Suresh”. Dipper couldn’t help but wonder if she was Somna.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed the chapter even if this wasn't one of my best^^; I hope next chapter will be better, but for now I'll be working on the next chapter to Abducted:3
> 
> Please leave a comment if you want to, I always love to hear my readers' opinion:3


	16. Episode 15: Corruption

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Still recovering from the Somna incident, the group encounters a new villain. One that causes more conflict in the group.

It was about three weeks the ”Somna Incident”, and Dipper and Bill still hadn’t had a real talk about it. It was hard for Dipper not to get frustrated with the current situation, since it constantly seemed like he and Bill avoided talking about things they definitely should be talking about. But on the other hand, the event had also had a clear effect on Bill, making Dipper hesitant to push for a talk, out of fear of pushing Bill too hard.

 

It was evening, right around the time they were closing up the shop. Dipper was going through inventory while Bill and Mabel were cleaning up the shop.

 

“So, who’s handling patrol tonight?” Mabel suddenly asked, breaking the silence.

 

“Um, I think it’s my turn,” Dipper answered.

 

“I was sure it was Bill,” Mabel argued.

 

“No, me and Porcupine traded shifts so I could watch a show tonight,” Bill interjected just as he was sweeping up the last bit of dust.

 

Dipper blushed slightly; it had been a while since Bill last used his nickname

 

“You might as well record it in case an emergency happens,” Mabel pointed out. “Anyway, I brought it up because I thought I could take care of patrol tonight.”

 

“Why?” Dipper asked.

 

“When was the last time the two of you had a date night?” Mabel shot back. “No, scratch that; when did you two last have an open conversation?”

 

“Oh, come on, Boss, it’s not like we’re ignoring each other,” Bill said defensively.

 

Mabel gave him a strict stare in return, slowly moving her gaze to Dipper.

 

“I’m taking tonight’s patrol,” she said. “And if you two haven’t had at least one heart-to-heart by the time I’m back, I’ll lock you both inside the closet until you do.”

 

And that was the final word.

 

Later, when it was time to start patrolling, Mabel left, hoping that her words had reached them, and that today of all days wouldn’t be particularly crime filled.

 

She transformed and got going, but barely five minutes had passed before she heard commotion a little further into the city.

 

“Please let it be a false alarm,” Mabel sighed as she flew closer to investigate.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

Dipper was sitting with Bill on the couch, an uncomfortable silence spreading between them.

 

“So…” Dipper began, scratching the back of his neck.

 

“What was it even that Mabel wanted us to talk about?” Bill asked.

 

Dipper’s mouth opened slightly in shock.

 

“Haven’t you noticed?” he asked.

 

“You gotta be more specific,” Bill said nonchalantly.

 

“ _This_ ,” Dipper emphasized by gesturing between them. “Us. “

 

“Again, you’re not making any sense,” Bill was beginning to sound frustrated himself. “How am I supposed to know what you’re talking, if you won’t say it?”

 

Dipper shut his mouth and looked away. He was scared to bring it up, for various reasons, not just out of fear of pushing Bill too hard, but he was also afraid of what Bill would say.

 

Luckily, their conversation was interrupted by Dipper’s phone ringing.

 

“Hello?” Dipper said after picking up the phone.

 

“I need Pine Tree and The Illuminator on Central Street ASAP,” Mabel’s voice responded. “We’ve got a villain on our hands.”

 

“We’ll have to finish this conversation when we get back,” Dipper remarked while turning off his phone.

 

“Or we could just not have it,” Bill mumbled before transforming.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

The two heroes settled out, soon discovering where Mabel was. Even without the street name, it wouldn’t have been difficult to find her, due to the sound of battle.

 

They arrived to find the street in ruins, but from the looks of it, not because of the fight; the buildings, asphalt, sidewalk, even lampposts, all looked like something from a post-apocalyptic movie; the buildings’ brickwork were shoddy, several bricks missing, with the ones still there looking old and covered in dust, the asphalt looked grey and was filled with holes and cracks, as were the sidewalk, and the lampposts were rusted and deteriorated to the point that they weren’t even functional anymore.

 

Mabel was facing off against a villain, with about a twenty meters distance between them. The villain was wearing a suit that covered his entire body except his hands; his costume was black and white, sectioned off with jagged lines.

 

There wasn’t much time for talk, as the villain immediately lunged at Mabel. She reacted by sending out a shot before flying over him. The villain slid under the shot before he rose to his feet, and the three heroes circled him, trying to prevent his escape.

 

“What’s his powers?” Dipper called out, keeping an eye on the villain who was standing still at the moment, just observing the heroes.

 

“Don’t get touched by his hands,” Mabel warned, but before she had the chance to elaborate, the villain lunged again, this time at Bill.

 

“Look out!” Dipper shouted, rushing in to try and defend Bill. He grabbed the villain by the wrists to prevent him from touching anything. The villain responded by kicking Dipper square in the chest, making him let go. Then Dipper heard the sound of something tearing, followed by a hand smacking him on the back, sending him to the floor.

 

It took a couple of seconds for Dipper to regain his composure, but that was all it took for the villain to escape. He had expected Mabel or Bill to chase after him, but they looked panicked at Dipper.

 

Mabel ran over to Dipper and ripped upper part of his costume off, just in time for Dipper to see the material disintegrate on the street.

 

“Are you okay?” Mabel asked worriedly, checking Dipper’s back for any signs of something wrong.

 

“I’m… fine, I think?” Dipper responded, still confused by seeing part of his costume disintegrate like that. “His powers… they make things rapidly age?”

 

“I assume it’d work on people too,” Mabel explained. “That’s why I didn’t want any of you to get touched by him.”

 

“You were ready to act there,” Bill complimented Mabel. “If you hadn’t ripped the affected part off, Pine Tree’s entire costume would’ve been gone with the wind.”

 

“Thanks,” Mabel sighed. “But now I have to fix Pine Tree’s costume.”

 

“Actually, I can probably fix it,” Bill added.

 

“Can you sew?” Dipper asked.

 

“No, but one of my powers is kinda like… clothes repairing? It’s hard to explain, but it’s the main reason why I never had to worry much about clothes when I was broke.”

 

“Can you do it right now?”

 

“It… takes some time,” Bill admitted.

 

“Alright, Pine Tree, you go back home,” Mabel ordered. “Bill and I will search for the villain.”

 

Dipper felt a small pang of anger and hurt at being told that. He understood he wouldn’t be much good in a fight with his suit ripped, especially if the villain only needed to touch him to take him out, but it was still frustrating.

 

“Fine,” Dipper sighed, accepting his sister’s orders, and left. Once home, he took off his suit before transforming back and decided to retire early.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

The next morning when Dipper awoke, he was already in a bad mood. He could feel it would be one of those days where nothing turns out right.

 

After getting out of bed, the first thing he saw was his suit, mended by Bill’s powers no doubt. Dipper knew he should be happy about that, but now him returning home the other night felt like a waste of time; if mending his costume could have been done that quickly, he should’ve been out there with his team!

 

He went into the kitchen, finding nothing there but dirty plates, and a single plate of scrambled eggs and toast with jam. Dipper ate the contents of the plate before heading down to the flower shop, finding no joy in the cold food.

 

When he got downstairs, he saw that Mabel was there, behind the cash registry as always. She smiled and waved at him when she saw him.

 

“Were you going to wake up, or were you fine with me sleeping all day?” Dipper grumbled at her.

 

“It’s not even noon yet, Dip-dop,” Mabel giggled. “Besides, I thought if you were oversleeping, you probably needed it.”

 

Dipper only responded with a small grunt.

 

Just then, the door was slammed open, causing Dipper to visibly wince at the sudden, loud sound.

 

“Delivery done!” Bill exclaimed as he barged through the door, throwing a stack of money next to the cash register. “I see you’re up and running, Porcupine. Did you see that I repaired your costume?”

 

Dipper glared at Bill and let out another grunt before going into the backroom.

 

“I think Dipper’s feeling grumpy today,” Mabel concluded.

 

“I agree,” Bill nodded. “The question is, will my company make it better or worse?”

 

“You ever thought he was maybe grumpy because you still haven’t talked about what happened with Somna?” Mabel asked.

 

“I… guess that’s… possible?” Bill mumbled. “… I’ll try.” He sighed and went into the backroom.

 

Dipper was busy growing flowers to refill their stocks when he noticed Bill stepping in.

 

“Hey Porcu-“ Bill was interrupted when he fell over a pot on the floor, falling hard on his stomach.

 

Dipper couldn’t help it; he burst out laughing.

 

“Thanks Bill,” Dipper giggled while Bill picked himself up. “I needed a laugh today.”

 

“I was gonna talk to you about that,” Bill responded, carefully putting the pot out of the way so he didn’t trip over it again. “Is anything wrong?”

 

Dipper shrugged. “Just having a bad day, I guess. There’s not really anything to talk about.”

 

“You sure?” Bill stepped closer to Dipper. “Because I can-“

 

“ _Yes, I’m sure!_ ” Dipper snarled, taking a step away from Bill. “Just…” he looked away and let out a sigh. “I just need to be alone…”

 

“Alright…” Bill had a look of surprise on his face; he couldn’t recall Dipper having ever snapped at him like that. He was worried, but he didn’t want to start a fight over Dipper wanting some time alone. So Bill left the room without another word.

 

Once Bill was gone, Dipper began shaking. He gripped one of the nearby tables and started breathing heavily. It didn’t make sense for him to get so angry at Bill over nothing. After all, Bill had just tried to be helpful, but for some reason, Dipper had felt a wave of anger when Bill expressed concern.

 

Dipper felt a flash of fear; could this be the work of Venus? She hadn’t appeared since the affair with Pentagram, but if she had returned, it would make sense for her to target them.

 

He tried his best to calm himself before leaving his work room. Another rush of anger hit him when he spotted Mabel and Bill.

 

“Dipper?” Mabel looked at him with worried eyes that felt like they were burning him.

 

Dipper knew what he _should_ do; tell the other two about his suspicions and how he was feeling. But something nagged in the back of his mind and was coming to the forefront; if he told them, they would either not believe him, or they would keep him there at home, while _they_ headed off to look for clues. Just like yesterday. Almost like they didn’t need him around, or didn’t want him around.

 

“I-I’m just not feeling too good today,” Dipper stuttered, massaging his forehead. “I’m going to bed and resting for a while.”

 

“Sure,” Mabel replied. “You want me or Bill to get you something-“

 

“ ** _No!_** ” Dipper shouted before forcing himself to calm down. “… I just need to rest in my room… alone.”

 

Dipper hurried up to his room without looking back at the undoubtedly worried faces of Bill and Mabel. Once inside, he transformed, wore his newly repaired costume, and jumped out the window to search for Venus.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

It took a couple of hours, but business had finally calmed down enough for Bill and Mabel to talk about what had happened with Dipper.

 

“Before you ask,” Bill started, having recently returned from the day’s deliveries. “I didn’t have a real heart-to-heart with Dipper. He snapped at me when I tried to ask what was wrong.”

 

“I actually don’t blame you,” Mabel responded, the worry evident in her tone and expression. “Something’s clearly wrong with him…”

 

“If we don’t have any more deliveries, I’ll make him something to drink, just in case he _is_ sick, and see if I talk to him. If not, you’re probably gonna have to try something, Boss.”

 

Bill set out to do what he said he would; he made a cup of tea and carried it to Dipper’s room. He knocked on the door, but didn’t get a response. He knocked again, and when he once again didn’t receive a reply, he went inside, only to find that Dipper wasn’t there.

 

Placing the tea down, Bill tried the bathroom, thinking maybe Dipper had felt sick, but he wasn’t there either.

 

Finally, Bill tried calling Dipper on his cellphone, only to hear his ringtone and finding his phone in his room.

 

Bill hurried back down to the store as fast as he could, thoughts about what could have happened to Dipper invading his mind.

 

“Dipper’s gone!” Bill shouted as soon as he stepped foot in the flower shop.

 

“What do you mean?” Mabel asked.

 

“He’s not upstairs, and he doesn’t have his phone!” Bill explained. “Oh god, I shouldn’t have gone out on those deliveries! I knew something was wrong and I didn’t do anything!”

 

“Bill, calm down,” Mabel told him. “We… we don’t know for sure if something bad happened to Dipper.”

 

“Then why would he leave without his phone? Why would he leave without telling us?!”

 

Mabel was quiet, silently conceding that Bill had a point.

 

“We need to close up shop early, transform, then go out and find him!”

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

As soon as they were out, Bill and Mabel split up, hoping to find Dipper quicker that way. Bill was surveying his part of the city, hoping to at least find a clue.

 

After nearly an hour of searching, Bill finally heard something. It was faint at first, but the sound grew louder; it came from his old home, from before he moved in with Dipper and Mabel. As Bill stood in front of the building, he could clearly hear what the sound was; it was unmistakably Dipper’s voice, or rather Pine Tree’s, calling for help.

 

Bill rushed inside, not even caring to think there could be a trap. He followed the shouts to his old living room, finding Dipper in his ‘form there, tied to a chair, with the only illumination in the room being the lit fire place.

 

“Illuminator!” Dipper shouted, his eyes lighting up with joy. “Quick! Get me free before he comes back!”

 

“Who?” Bill asked while he began to untie Dipper, not wanting to risk accidently burning him by burning the ropes.

 

“That villain we fought last night,” Dipper explained. “His name is Corruption, and he’s more dangerous than we thought; his powers don’t just rapidly age things he touched!”

 

“What else do they do?” Bill asked after having finally freed Dipper.

 

“They…” Dipper turned his gaze away before meeting Bill’s eyes with a cruel smile on his face. “… corrupt people, of course~”

 

Bill barely had time to react before he realized that not only were the ropes still attached to Dipper, they weren’t even ropes! They were vines growing out of his wrists! Before he could register what was going on, Dipper used the vines to tie up Bill in the chair; his vines moving much faster and with way more ease than normal.

 

“Pine Tree, what’s going on?” Bill asked in surprise.

 

“I just told you,” Dipper groaned and rolled his eyes.

 

“You’re being controlled,” Bill implored, trying to reach his boyfriend. “You have to break free! You’re not like this.”

 

“If what I’m doing is wrong, why does it feel so good?” Dipper questioned with a small laugh at the end. “Feels _really_ good in fact~ I actually beat you!”

 

“How did you even do this?!” Bill asked, nodding towards the vines keeping him tied to the chair. “Since when could you do that?”

 

“I got the idea a little while back,” Dipper said with a bright smile. “I realized that I could use my own blood and body as the water and ground to grow my plants. Upside, I can control these plants much easier than others, since they’re a part of me. Downside, I can’t grow plants much bigger than these vines.”

 

“I guess that’s good,” Bill gave him a crooked smile in return.

 

“ ** _Stop that!_** ” Dipper roared, tightening the vines around Bill. “Every time you smile, I feel _sick!_ I despise you to my very core!” He put his face so close to Bill’s that their noses nearly touched. “If you’re gonna do anything, use those flames of yours to free yourself; let me feel that burn.”

 

“I am not going to hurt you, Pine Tree,” Bill said sincerely.

 

“ ** _Urgh!_** ” Dipper made a sound of disgust and recoiled slightly from. “You are the worst!” He then calmed down, his eyes lighting up as if he got an idea. “… But if you’re not gonna do anything to stop me…”

 

Dipper approached Bill again, this time sitting down in his lap, and grinding his body into Bill’s crotch.

 

“What are you doing?!” Bill asked, a look of distress on his face, which only seemed to please Dipper more. This was very bad.

 

“What’s wrong, Cipher?” Dipper gave him a fake pout. “I thought you liked me…” the pout was replaced with an angry sneer. “But I guess you really are so disgusted by me that you can’t even stand the idea of having sex with me, even though I’m supposed to be your boyfriend.”

 

“That’s got nothing to do with it!” Bill protested. “This isn’t you; you’re under Corruption’s control-“

 

“Don’t blame this on him!” Dipper laughed. “You were like this before I was corrupted.”

 

“... I just can’t stop thinking about the Somna incident,” Bill confessed, hoping that somehow his honest feelings would get through to Dipper. “Every time I think about what I did… I feel like I’m gonna throw up-“

 

“Wow, you really find me that disgusting,” Dipper let out an unhinged laugh.

 

“No!” Bill insisted. “Listen to me; I hate that that was technically our first time. I love you so much, but I’m so disgusted with myself, because I still enjoyed it.”

 

“Stop -” Dipper growled and leaned far enough in that his and Bill’s noses were touching. “- saying that.”

 

Bill took his chance; he theorized that the corruption must have somehow reversed the chemical responses in Dipper’s brain. If that was true, maybe a strong enough response could return the chemicals to normal. So Bill leaned forward and kissed Dipper with all his might. The sudden lean-in even caused the chair to tip over, and Bill landed on top of Dipper.

 

Dipper let out a small squeak and pushed Bill off of him, standing up and trying to get some distance, while still being close enough to keep Bill tied to the chair.

 

“I love you so much, Pine Tree,” Bill said as sincerely as he could. “I wanna spend the rest of my life with you!”

 

“Shut up!” Dipper shouted, visibly shuddering.

 

“You’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen!” Bill continued. “Every day I spend with you, feels like some kind of divine blessing I don’t deserve!”

 

“What’s wrong with you!?” Dipper screeched, shutting his eyes and moving his arms to cover his ears with his hands. In doing so, the vines loosened around Bill, allowing him to escape.

 

Bill hurried to his legs and ran over to Dipper, using his arms to trap Dipper against the wall; the fireplace provided the perfect lighting for Bill’s plan.

 

 “G-get away!” Dipper screeched, trying to kick Bill away. “You think this is going to make me like you again?”

 

“Shh…” Bill hushed and leaned in closer to Dipper.

 

“Y-you…!” Dipper was gasping, and his face was turning pale.

 

“Just keep focusing on me,” Bill tried to reassure him, but in truth he was starting to doubt if this was working. Maybe he would be better off knocking Dipper unconscious and try to locate the villain behind this.

 

But then Dipper’s gasps turned into whines, and his pale face got flushed with color.

 

“Bill?” Dipper managed to say before he fainted in Bill’s arms, probably exhausted from all the shifting emotions.

 

Bill picked Dipper up in his arms, right as Dipper’s transformation wore off, and carried him back home. He hoped Mabel would be able to take on Corruption this time; Bill needed to be there for Dipper when he woke up.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

As Mabel scoured the city, it didn’t take long for her to find the villain; he was sitting in the middle of the same destroyed street from yesterday.

 

In her excitement, Mabel forgot to shoot Bill a message that she had found a villain, and instead flew in to confront him.

 

“Ah, it’s you,” the villain said calmly. Mabel was confused; last time he had attacked her on sight.

 

“What are you doing here?” Mabel asked carefully, inching closer to the villain.

 

“Waiting for you,” he responded. “Pine Tree said you would arrive. You and that other hero; Illuminator. I assume since you’re here alone, the two of you split up?”

 

“You know where Pine Tree is?!” Mabel exclaimed.

 

“Probably taking care of Illuminator as we speak,” he grinned and rose to his feet; his hands began to glow with a dark energy.

 

Mabel didn’t have time to ponder what the villain meant, as he lunged for her. Mabel narrowly avoided his hands by bending backwards, raising one of her legs both to regain balance and to kick him in the stomach.

 

While the villain was stunned from her kick, Mabel took to the skies to put some distance between them. It wasn’t an ideal solution since now neither of them could touch the other. Well, Mabel could technically use one of her shots to hit him, but would that be enough to knock him unconscious?

 

“Any minute now…” the villain grinned as he stared at Mabel, not doing anything else.

 

This standstill continued for several minutes until his smile faltered.

 

“W-where is he?” the villain sounded perplexed. “This doesn’t make any sense…”

 

“What did you do?” Mabel finally demanded.

 

“I- I corrupted Pine Tree,” the villain said. “That’s what I do! That’s what my powers do! What else am I supposed to do with them!?”

 

Mabel was taken aback by the villain’s outburst. It almost sounded like something that had been held back for a long time.

 

“Of course Meliors like you become heroes!” he shouted. “You can fly, for fucks sakes! But what about those with powers like me!?! I could have never been anything else…”

 

“It, um, sounds like you’re dealing with a lot,” Mabel said awkwardly, slowly descending and hoping this wasn’t some clever mind trick to have her lower her guards. “If you wanna talk about it-“

 

“Fuck you,” he snarled. “You win, okay? You win this time. I don’t know what the hell happened to me and Pine Tree’s plan, but I’ve had enough of this.”

 

Mabel was pretty stunned. This was pretty similar to when Venus had given up, only she had done so because she had been betrayed by Pentagram. This guy was quitting for seemingly no reason.

 

“You aren’t really a villain, are you?” Mabel asked. “I mean, you’re fine with doing collateral damage, clearly, but… you don’t really want to fight me.”

 

He paused for a moment. He closed his eyes before he spoke again. “Imagine growing up, knowing you’re a Melior, hearing tales of superheroes, only to learn that your powers can never be used for good.”

 

A moment of silence spread out between the two.

 

“That’s not true,” Mabel insisted, finally breaking the silence. “All powers can be used for good, including yours! You just-“

 

He held up a hand to signal for Mabel to stop, and she did. “I… appreciate the thought… It means a lot, more than you probably think… But I’m still a villain. Are you going to apprehend me?”

 

Mabel looked at him for a moment; this man she had thought a villain, who now just looked so sad and defeated, and she didn’t even know why.

 

“No,” Mabel said and shook her head. She half expected the guy to attack her again, but instead, he turned around and began to walk away. Mabel let him.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

Back home at the apartment, Bill placed Dipper on the bed. Bill transformed back to his civilian self, and waited by the bedside for Dipper to wake up. It didn’t take long before Dipper started to stir, and finally opened his eyes.

 

He awoke with a startled expression, and took a couple of deep breaths, before he noticed Bill.

 

“O-one… one sec,” Dipper gasped before he sat up in bed and detransformed.

 

“Do you remember what happened?” Bill asked, readjusting his position so that he was sitting next to Dipper.

 

“I… I knew something was wrong with me,” Dipper explained. “I wasn’t feeling like myself. I took out to look for Venus, since I suspected she had something to do with it.”

 

“Me and Mabel had the same idea,” Bill added before he let Dipper continue.

 

“Yeah… so, I encountered Corruption. He knew what he had done to me, and he told me. I should’ve had been angry, but instead I felt… happy. So happy… A-and Corruption was happy too, because he had someone on his side. He wanted to corrupt you and Mabel too, and in my state, I felt so excited at the idea. We began to plan, based on every conceivable outcome; if you and Mabel both showed up to rescue me, I had to play it off like I hadn’t changed, lead you to Corruption, and then… betray you. If both you and Mabel showed up to fight him, he would pretend to escape and lead you to me, which we hoped would throw you off enough to let us take advantage off.”

 

Dipper paused for a moment, like he was trying to collect his thoughts.

 

“Ideally, we wanted you and Mabel to split up, letting us both tackle you one at the time. I was supposed to knock the one who showed up to save me unconscious and tie you up, then join Corruption in fighting the other, but… when you showed up, I couldn’t help myself,” Dipper swallowed audibly. “It felt so good to toy with you, make you feel bad, ashamed…” Dipper was shaking and hid his face in his hands. “I can’t believe I did that to you…”

 

“Dipper…” Bill gave him a sympathetic look before pulling him into his arms, tenderly stroking his back trying to comfort him. “It wasn’t you.”

 

“Yes, it was!” Dipper insisted. “That’s what makes it so scary. I don’t blame you if you don’t-“

 

“Wait,” Bill placed a finger over Dipper’s mouth. “I know what you’re gonna say; I still want to be with you. I still love you, Dipper.”

 

Dipper looked at him helplessly before averting his gaze. “How?”

 

“Well,” Bill thought for a moment how he could best explain it. “You still love me, even after everything I did while under Pentagram’s control.”

 

“That’s different. You were under mind control, I wasn’t.”

 

“No, it was exactly the same thing. Someone manipulated our emotions to act in a way we wouldn’t otherwise act.” Bill leaned in closer to Dipper. “For the longest time, I couldn’t understand why you still wanted to be with me, but I get it now.”

 

Bill gave Dipper a quick peck on the lips.

 

“Don’t blame yourself for this,” Bill said. “Nobody else does.”

 

“… Thank you, Bill,” Dipper responded, embracing Bill as he did so.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

Soon after, Mabel returned as well. Bill and Dipper told her what they knew about Corruption, and Mabel relayed what she had been told.

 

None of them were sure, but they had a feeling they would encounter Corruption again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to thank everyone for being patient with me:3 If you're wondering why I haven't updated a lot in the past many months, or updated many of my stories at all, it has to do with some personal business. Long story short, I've had a lot of depression and stress from early autumn to even now, and it has steadily been getting worse. This is do to some personal stuff that I don't think most of you are gonna care much about, because it's pretty stupid. I'm not in an abusive or dangerous situation though, so please don't worry about me:3
> 
> The situation should be solved around late February to early March, and there are even some improvements coming later on in January. I hope I will be able to write and update like I did in the past, and you will continue to enjoy my work. I just felt you guys deserved to know why updates have been scarce, since you have all been so patient with me:3
> 
> For anyone wanting to know, I'm planning on updating all my current in-work stories, even the ones I haven't updated in over a year now, and I will now list the order in which I wish to update them: Abducted, Lovesick, College Crush, Cipher's House: Fallen Star, and finally The Demon's Kingdom. Each story will receive at least one chapter each.
> 
> Thank you for reading all that, and thank you for reading this chapter! Please leave a comment if you want to; I will never not enjoy to get thoseX3


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